GAZA CITY, 21 August 2005 — Palestinian legislative elections will be held on Jan. 25, President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday. Abbas made the announcement while talking to high school students here.
Abbas also signed a decree appropriating Jewish settlement land for public use once Israel’s evacuation of Gaza is complete.
Both measures are meant to ease suspicions among Abbas’ political rivals over the intentions of the Palestinian Authority and encourage them to hold their fire during the pullout.
Abbas’ proclamation seizing control of the evacuated Gaza land was meant to assert the authority of the Palestinian government in an area still largely dominated by political warlords, and where corruption among officials is deeply ingrained. Many Palestinians feared prime land could end up in the hands of senior officials of the ruling Fatah organization.
“We have issued a decree today about the land, which represents 97 percent of the area that is being evacuated, so that no individual will be allowed to benefit personally,” Abbas said.
The 21 settlements, with 8,500 residents, and several military installations controlled about 20 percent of the land in the narrow coastal strip that is home to 1.3 million Palestinians.
About 9 percent of the land expropriated by Israel is claimed by private Palestinian owners, who will have an opportunity to reclaim their property, while the rest had been in the public domain.
Abbas said 3,000 new houses will be built for Palestinians on what was known as the settlement of Morag. Morag lies just a few kilometers from the town of Khan Younis.
Abbas added that the settlement of Netzarim, which is due to be evacuated by Israeli forces early next week, would also be used as part of a new port complex in Gaza.
Israel and the Palestinians have agreed that all of the homes of the Jewish settlers should be demolished after the completion of the withdrawal.
Meanwhile, Hamas said it would fight to drive Israel out of the West Bank and Jerusalem after the Jewish state completes its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
“Gaza is not Palestine,” a masked spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing told a news conference.
“As for Jerusalem and the West Bank, we will seek to liberate them by resistance just as the Gaza Strip was liberated,” said the spokesman, surrounded by gunmen and militants with rocket launchers.
He did not explicitly say Hamas, committed to destroying Israel, planned to abandon a truce at the end of 2005.
Militants had agreed to respect a cease-fire until the end of the year at the behest of Abbas, who wanted to ensure a quiet withdrawal of the settlers from Gaza.
The pullout is seen by the Palestinian leadership and international community as a step toward reviving negotiations on statehood in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But militants see the first removal of settlements from land Palestinians want for a state as a victory for an armed uprising that surged after talks failed in 2000.
— Additional input from agencies
