Palestinians plan to call off elections: Cairo

GAZA CITY: Egyptian officials say the Palestinian Authority (PA) plans to call off its first elections in 15 years, citing Israel’s refusal to allow voting in Arab East Jerusalem.

An Egyptian diplomat and an intelligence official said they had been briefed on the Palestinians’ decision to cancel the election, which will be announced on Thursday at a meeting of Palestinian factions.

They said Egypt is in talks with Israel to reach a compromise to allow the vote but those efforts have so far failed.

The two spoke late Monday on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks.

The intelligence official said Hamas wants the elections to go ahead but that no faction wants to proceed without guarantees from the international community that voting will be held in Arab East Jerusalem.

The official said the factions are discussing the formation of a unity government instead that would include Hamas.

A Palestinian official said no decision will be made until the factions meet on Thursday, and that if Israel decides to allow voting in Arab East Jerusalem, the May 22 elections will go ahead as planned.

The official said Fatah is opposed to holding elections without Arab East Jerusalem because it would mean accepting Israel’s annexation.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity. Alon Bar, a senior official in Israel’s Foreign Ministry, told the EU ambassadors that Israel would not prevent Palestinian elections from taking place, calling it an internal Palestinian issue, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

The statement did not address the question of voting in Arab East Jerusalem.

It did, however, quote Bar as calling Hamas’ growing strength “worrying” given its encouragement of recent violence in Jerusalem and the firing of rockets from Gaza.

“Israel is acting with caution and responsibility to prevent a deterioration of the situation on the ground and expects the European countries to act in the same manner,” Bar said.

Nour Odeh, a parliamentary candidate for a rival list led by current and former senior Fatah members, said she was “extremely concerned” that the elections would be cancelled.

She said the Palestinians should seek creative solutions to allow voting in Arab East Jerusalem.

“Holding elections in Jerusalem is part of the batle for Palestinian freedom,” she said.

“Instead of waiting for Israeli permission or facilitation to hold elections through the Israeli post office, we need to come up with different solutions,” she said, including potentially placing ballot boxes in schools and religious sites.