GAZA CITY, 4 January 2006 — Israeli police stopped two leading Palestinian candidates from canvassing for votes in East Jerusalem as campaigning for Palestinian legislative elections opened yesterday.
Mustapha Barghouti, runner-up in last January’s presidential election, and former peace negotiator Hanan Ashrawi were both attempting to defy a ban on any election activity in East Jerusalem which was occupied and then annexed by Israel after the 1967 Six-Day War.
Barghouti was arrested while on a walkabout in the Arab quarter of the walled Old City while Ashrawi, who is a resident of East Jerusalem, was ordered to stop canvassing in the same area.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday he would cancel the election scheduled for Jan. 25 unless residents of East Jerusalem can join the democratic process, a threat repeated by Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei.
A White House spokesman said yesterday that President George W. Bush wants Palestinian elections to go forward as scheduled this month with no delay and thinks Palestinians should be allowed to vote in East Jerusalem.
“We believe that people must have access to the ballot,” the White House spokesman said. “Arrangements have been made in the past to ensure that those persons can vote and we believe some arrangements should be possible at this time,” the spokesman added, referring to Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.
Hamas insisted the vote must take place as scheduled, despite an Israeli ban on voting in East Jerusalem. “Postponing the election will lead to a vacuum and to a dark future,” Ismail Haniyeh, the top Hamas candidate, told reporters in Gaza. “Postponing the election is not the solution.”
Israel says interim peace accords forbid Palestinian political activity in Jerusalem. In a compromise used during the 1996 parliamentary election and in presidential elections last year, East Jerusalem’s Palestinians voted by absentee ballot in post offices.
But this election will mark the first time Hamas will field candidates. Israel has called for the group to be disqualified.
A victory or strong showing for Hamas will create “big problems” for Israel, the head of the country’s internal security service Shin Bet warned. “In such a situation, they (Hamas) will penetrate all government departments and strengthen their grip on the territories,” Yuval Diskin told a committee of MPs.
Diskin warned that Hamas would do everything possible to protect its armed followers and that Israel should not “harbor any illusions by expecting the Palestinian Authority to fight terrorism.”
Israeli Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir said that no firm decision had yet been made over whether voting would be allowed in East Jerusalem. “However we can say categorically that a terrorist organization such as Hamas should not take part in the elections as it calls for the elimination of the state of Israel and orders the murder of our nationals,” he said.
— Additional input from agencies
