Abbas Drops Jerusalem Stop Due to Israeli Presence


Reuters
 Date: 01-07-05

By Mohammed Assadi

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Mahmoud Abbas's campaign to succeed Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) wound up on a sour note on Friday as he canceled a stop in Arab East Jerusalem because Israeli security would have embarrassed him.

Abbas has revived international hopes for Middle East peace by pressing for an end to violence in a Palestinian uprising and pledging to pursue peace talks with Israel after Sunday's presidential election which he is expected to easily win.

But he called off a plan to cap his campaign with an appearance in the center of East Jerusalem to underline Palestinians' claim to it as the capital of the state they seek in Israeli-occupied territories.

"God willing, we will visit Jerusalem later," Abbas told reporters in Ramallah, without elaborating.

Officials close to him said Abbas decided he did not want images of him being shadowed by Israeli security units during the campaign in which he has courted Palestinian militants who in the past have branded him a stooge of Israel.

They said Israeli officials had told Abbas they would drape a heavy security cordon around him in East Jerusalem out of concern he might be assaulted by ultra-nationalist Jews.

Instead, Abbas would visit an all-Arab neighborhood on the northern edge of East Jerusalem not frequented by Israeli forces, officials said.

Friday was the last day of campaigning before Sunday's vote which polls show Abbas, a veteran former deputy to Arafat who died in November, will win by a landslide.

DETAINED

Israel, which took East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally, said Palestinian residents could vote in the election and candidates could campaign in private buildings.

Another candidate, Mustafa Barghouthi, campaigned in East Jerusalem on Friday but was briefly detained when he tried to enter a Jerusalem shrine holy to Muslims and Jews without a permit, a police spokesman said.

"I am coming here to pray in the mosque and now you are arresting me. You are arresting a presidential candidate with a permit to be in Jerusalem," Barghouthi said as he was detained at an entrance to Jerusalem's walled Old City.

Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said Barghouthi had a permit for an election debate in an East Jerusalem hotel but not to appear in the Old City shrine known to Jews as Temple Mount and Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif.

Abbas raised Israeli and U.S. concern earlier this week when he angrily branded Israel the "Zionist enemy" after an Israeli tank killed seven Palestinian farmers in Gaza. The army said it had hit militants firing rockets at Jewish settlers.

But Abbas, on a campaign visit to the West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, reaffirmed his wish for negotiations with Israel after the first presidential election since 1996.

More than 10,000 Palestinians joined rallies for Abbas at Nablus's al-Najah University and Balata refugee camp, where he embraced fighters from a military group in his Fatah (news - web sites) movement.

Abbas has urged Palestinian fighters to cease mortar and rocket attacks, saying they only draw heavy Israeli retaliation. Militant groups have rejected the call.

Israel has promised to help ensure the Palestinian elections go smoothly by pulling its troops back from West Bank cities.

(Additional reporting by Ori Lewis in Jerusalem)

Source

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.