The Palestinian Authority would postpone its parliamentary elections if Israel barred Palestinian residents of Jerusalem from participating, the Palestinian deputy prime minister said on Wednesday.
Israeli officials said they would not allow voting in East Jerusalem as part of the elections scheduled for January 25 if the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas was involved.
An Israeli official told Reuters that Hamas’s involvement is unacceptable because its constitution calls for the destruction of the state of Israel.
”It’s like allowing al-Qaeda to open a polling station in London,” the official said. ”This … will allow a terrorist organisation … to gain a majority or be able to participate in an election at the end of which it will work towards the destruction of Israel.”
However, a poll published on Wednesday revealed that 50% of Israelis would favour peace talks with Hamas, despite its calls to destroy the Jewish state. The poll, conducted in mid-December by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, found 47% would be opposed, said Yaacov Shamir, who conducted the survey.
Shamir said Israelis have not grown more accepting of Hamas but understand the group’s popularity among Palestinians is growing.
”This shows an Israeli awareness of what is going on in the Palestinian public, that Hamas is serious about its intention to play a role in Palestinian politics,” he said. ”We cannot prevent this, and the public understands that.”
Many observers believe electoral success would force Hamas to re-evaluate its strategy and it would realise that it could achieve more through democratic politics than through paramilitary violence.
Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister, told reporters that an Israeli ban would constitute grounds for postponing the election.
”We cannot hold elections anywhere if the Palestinians in Jerusalem are not allowed to vote,” he said. The Palestinian Authority will try to bring international pressure to force Israel to reconsider, Shaath added.
”But if we don’t succeed, this will mean there will be no elections. For us, Jerusalem is more important than any other thing.”
Palestinians in East Jerusalem were allowed to vote in presidential elections early this year and in parliamentary elections in 1996. However, Israel is always reluctant to allow free elections on the territory it claims because it sees them as a threat to its sovereignty. Israel annexed East Jerusalem after capturing it from Jordan in 1967. During the presidential elections, candidates were arrested and posters were taken down by Israeli police.
There are concerns among members of Fatah, the once-dominant Palestinian faction, that Hamas will defeat them in the poll. Hamas did very well in municipal elections, taking control of cities that were once Fatah strongholds.
But Palestinian officials denied that the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, was using Israel’s threat as a pretext to call off the vote.
Abbas has insisted the vote will take place as scheduled, but said on Wednesday: ”This is a big responsibility that must be studied carefully.”
Shaath said the postponement will be decided by Abbas after consulting all the factions. Hamas is adamant the elections should take place as scheduled — after they were postponed during the summer. — Guardian Unlimited Â