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Israeli cabinet to decide Palestinian vote
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-11 08:48
Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday the Cabinet would
decide next week whether to allow Palestinians to vote in Jerusalem during
Palestinian parliamentary elections.
If the Cabinet approves the plan, it would resolve a dispute that threatened
to derail the Jan. 25 election.
Olmert told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a phone conversation
that the Cabinet would vote on the matter at its weekly meeting Sunday,
according to a statement from Olmert's office. Rice had called Olmert for an
update on the condition of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was hospitalized
after a massive stroke.
Israel had threatened to prevent the voting in Jerusalem, which had been
allowed in previous elections, because of the presence on the ballot of Hamas, a
militant group pledged to the destruction of Israel. A Cabinet decision to allow
the voting to go forward would be contingent on Hamas not participating,
Olmert's statement said.
Israeli acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
gestures during a press conference in Jerusalem Sunday Jan. 8, 2006.
[AP] | Israeli officials gave conflicting accounts as to whether the proposal would
pass.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Tuesday that Israel would allow Jerusalem
voting along the same lines as previous Palestinian elections, when it permitted
some residents to cast absentee ballots at post offices. The remainder of voters
cast ballots in West Bank suburbs.
"Israel's policy regarding elections in east Jerusalem will stay like it
was," Mofaz told reporters while on a tour near Jerusalem. The arrangements were
reached under interim peace agreements in the mid-1990s.
But Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said there would be no voting in
Jerusalem.
"Israel is of the opinion — and it was an opinion widespread when Prime
Minister Sharon was still functioning as a decision-maker — that under the
present circumstances, residents of east Jerusalem are not to be allowed to vote
in Jerusalem itself but only in the adjoining (West Bank) villages," he said.
The dispute reflects internal Israeli politics. Shalom is in Likud, the
hard-line party Sharon left to set up his centrist Kadima, which Mofaz joined.
Israel's parliamentary elections are March 28.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he had not heard anything official
from the Israelis. "If this is the case, I welcome this position of the Israeli
government," he said.
The status of Jerusalem is one of the most sensitive issues in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital. The
Palestinians claim the eastern sector of the city as capital of a future state.
Israel had been threatening to prevent voting in Jerusalem because the
Islamic group Hamas, which is committed to Israel's destruction, is running.
On Tuesday, Israel's Security Cabinet recommended that the government boycott
elected Hamas representatives unless the group accepts Israel and lays down its
weapons, said security officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they
were not authorized to disclose details.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas had said the election would be canceled if
Palestinians in east Jerusalem weren't allowed to vote, but said in a televised
address Monday that he had received assurances from the U.S. that Jerusalem
voting would be allowed.
Olmert's announcement came a day before a team of U.S. envoys were scheduled
to arrive to help resolve the dispute.
Israeli police also reversed a ban on allowing Palestinian candidates to
campaign in Jerusalem.
On Tuesday, police published conditions for the campaigning, saying that
members of terror groups, such as Hamas or Islamic Jihad, were still banned.
Other candidates could hold meetings in private homes, but assemblies in public
buildings would require a police permit.
Rallies in open spaces were banned and election posters were to be displayed
only on notice boards put up for the purpose by the municipality. Posters on
vehicles were also banned, but small bumper stickers were permitted, the
statement said.
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