Israel sticks to Palestinian vote threat despite US plea
AFP
Date: 09-21-05
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel reiterated threats to hamper January's Palestinian election if the militant Islamist movement Hamas stands despite being urged by Washington to cooperate in organising the polls.
"We will not allow Hamas to take part in the elections," Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said in a radio interview from New York where he has been attending the UN General Assembly.
"From our point of view, there will be no assistance nor aid (to the Palestinian Authority) if Hamas, which
calls for the destruction of the state of Israel and refuses to recognize the state of Israel, participates," he said.
A foreign ministry official told AFP that while Israel had no intention of reoccupying cities in the West Bank, it would not ease roadblocks or facilitate voting in east Jerusalem if Hamas were to stand.
"We will not cooperate and we will not make things easy as we did in January for (Palestinian Authority president) Mahmud Abbas's election, when we earned praise from international observers," said the official.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has already acknowledged that Israel can do little to disrupt the elections in Hamas's Gaza Strip stronghold after ending its 38-year occupation last week.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged full cooperation saying the elections were "fundamental to the continued evolution and development of the Palestinian process.
But she said there was a "fundamental contradiction" between Hamas's armed activities and its plan to run in the January 25 election.
Hamas on Wednesday rejected an appeal from the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations, the so-called diplomatic quartet, to disarm before the poll.
"We reject this call, which is an interference in internal Palestinian affairs aiming to provoke inter-Palestinian fighting," it said.
However, Palestinian militant groups have agreed to bring a halt to armed rallies celebrating Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip, a Hamas official said after a meeting between Abbas and representatives of 13 factions.
"We agreed to put an end to our military parades celebrating the withdrawal as of Saturday," said Said Siham. "We have also decided that we will no longer march with our weapons in the streets of Gaza's towns."
Following the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Abbas vowed to end the armed chaos in the Palestinian territories which has seen militant groups such as Hamas effectively operate above the law.
On Sunday, Hamas's armed wing staged an unprecedented show of strength in Gaza with about 10,000 people rallying to call for Israel to leave all occupied Palestinian territory.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan read a statement on behalf of the quartet saying that "ultimately, those who want to be part of the political process should not engage in armed group or militia activities."
Shalom praised the quartet for its "most positive statement," saying that "no terrorist organisation can participate in the political process while it takes part in terrorist operations".
Hamas, behind the majority of anti-Israeli attacks during the five-year Palestinian uprising, did not stand in the first legislative elections a decade ago, due to its opposition to the Oslo autonomy accords.
However, its strong showing in recent municipal elections has persuaded the group to stand in what are only the second ever legislative elections and try to end the long domination of the governing Fatah faction.
Despite the threat posed by Hamas to Fatah's dominance, Abbas has warned outsiders against interfering in internal Palestinian affairs.
"We know better than anyone else how to deal with our brothers," he said.
Hamas is observing a truce but has refused to hand over its weapons in the aftermath of the historic pullout from Gaza, saying it will not disarm until Israel has been forced out of all Palestinian land.
A top army intelligence official told a parliamentary committee that Palestinian militants have managed to smuggle hundreds of weapons into Gaza since the Israeli pullout last week.
Although an internationally drafted peace plan has made next to no progress since its endorsement two years ago, its quartet sponsors reiterated their commitment to the plan and a "truly viable" Palestinian state.
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