Israeli PM: Palestinians in Jerusalem can vote, but not for Hamas
Palestine-Israel-USA, Politics, 1/10/2006

Israel's acting prime minister Ehud Olmert told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday afternoon that "Palestinians in East Jerusalem will be able to vote in the upcoming Palestinian Legislative Council elections on January 25, but will not be able to vote for Hamas candidates," Haaretz reported today

Haaretz (www.Haaretz.com) report that "Earlier Tuesday, The Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom (Likud) were at odds over whether or not to permit Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem to vote in the elections."

Haaretz said: Olmert told Rice that the cabinet will vote Sunday on the participation of several hundred East Jerusalem Palestinians in the PLC elections, as was done in elections in 1996 and 2005, "when it is clear that terrorist groups and their representatives will not be able to take part in the elections in Jerusalem."

Haaretz reported that "Mofaz said Israel would follow the policy of previous Palestinian elections, including last year's presidential vote, when it permitted a small number of East Jerusalem residents to vote in local post offices. The remainder were permitted to vote in outlying suburbs in the West Bank. "Israel's policy regarding elections in East Jerusalem will stay like it was, the elections will take place in the format used in 1996 and the same applies for East Jerusalem," he said.

Meantime, the US Department Of State spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday "The Secretary reiterated what I have said, that this is an issue that the Palestinians and the Israelis need to resolve. She underscored the importance of the January 25th elections moving forward as scheduled and said -- and she also reiterated the fact that, in the past, the Israelis and the Palestinians have been able to come to some accommodation on this issue. They've done it twice before, to my knowledge, so we would hope and expect that they are able to do so again.

Asked "but in the past, the US has used its good offices, if you will, to put pressure on the Israelis to allow voting. I mean, it wasn't just that they worked it out. It was, in some part, due to US influence. Is the US using its influence? Is it talking to the Israelis, urging them to allow the voting?" McCormack replied "This is -- I know there's a tendency to want to try to paint these things in terms of a zero-sum game; if you're doing one thing with one party, you can't do it with another. This is fundamentally an issue between the Israelis and the Palestinians in terms of what accommodations they arrive at. At the end of the day, they are the ones that have to be comfortable with the agreements that they themselves have reached. There are legitimate issues of security concerns on the side of the Israelis and there are legitimate issues concerning free movement and access on the Palestinian side. That is the case in any number of issues between the Israelis and the Palestinians, so they are going to have to talk about and try to resolve any differences that they may have. We hope that they look to the past and, when they were able to resolve these issues, come to some mutual accommodation that satisfied the legitimate security needs as well as the desires for the free movement for Palestinians so they could participate in a vote. We hope that they are able to arrive at that -- a similar accommodation this time around.

Alsked "Mr. Abbas said that he was given assurances by the Secretary on behalf of President Bush, that --" he replied " I'm characterizing the Secretary's phone call," and saying elections will be on January 25th.

McCormack said "In terms of Hamas, our views on Hamas are well known. It's a terrorist organization. As for what they may or may not be doing, you'll have to ask them. But there is a -- within Palestinian society there is a fundamental contradiction that needs to be addressed, and that is you cannot have groups that retain an option on violence, on terror, yet say they want to participate in the political process. It's an irreconcilable difference that needs to -- it needs to be resolved. You have to be one or the other. But as we have said in the past, it is an issue for the Palestinian people to address. The Palestinian people will have an opportunity on January 25th to vote in a parliamentary election. In the past, they have, in fact, voted for those who, as President Abbas did, ran on a platform of bringing greater security and prosperity to the Palestinian people, but ultimately these are questions that the Palestinian people are going to have to answer for themselves through the ballot box."

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  Noam Chomsky perspective on the Palestinian - Israeli issue   (12/26/2005)
  Palestinian prime minister drops out of elections   (12/24/2005)
  Fatah said to run united in Palestinian elections   (12/23/2005)
  Solana looms to stop aid if Hamas wins elections   (12/19/2005)
  US disappointed in Rafah agreement delays   (12/17/2005)
  Hamas big gain in Palestinian elections   (12/17/2005)
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  On Israel's interference in Palestinians' democratic elections   (10/17/2005)
  Fatah wins municipal elections in the West bank   (9/30/2005)

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