ISRAEL: Palestinians began campaigning for parliamentary elections yesterday despite increased uncertainty over this month's poll, due to Israeli obstructions in occupied East Jerusalem and deepening internal chaos in the Gaza Strip, writes Nuala Haughey in Jerusalem
Tensions have emerged between the Islamic militant group Hamas and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas over his suggestion that the vote be postponed if some 200,000 Palestinian East Jerusalemites are not able to participate.
Hamas, which is expected to make a strong showing in the first general election in a decade, insisted yesterday that the poll take place as planned on January 25th, despite growing pressure by Mr Abbas's ruling Fatah movement to put off the vote, which has already been twice delayed.
"We have told them [ Fatah] that postponing the election will lead to a vacuum and to a dark future," said Hamas's top candidate, Ismail Haniyeh.
Fatah started its campaign at Yasser Arafat's grave in the West Bank city of Ramallah yesterday, with senior official Nabil Shaath calling for honest elections to show the world "we are capable of building our state and institutions".
However, the start of campaigning for the 132-seat Legislative Council was overshadowed by further signs of mayhem in Gaza and renewed Palestinian rocket attacks in retaliation for an Israeli air strike on Monday which killed two militants.
Early yesterday Palestinian gunmen shot in the air near the Gaza-Egypt border crossing, which was stormed last week by local policemen protesting at the breakdown in law and order in the Strip, which Israeli troops withdrew from last September.
Attempts by several candidates to open campaigns in East Jerusalem yesterday were broken up by Israeli police, with scuffles occurring throughout the day at the Damascus gate of the walled Old City.
Mustafa Barghouti, an independent candidate, was briefly detained during a campaign rally, while independent MP Hanan Ashrawi was prevented from displaying banners. Israel says Palestinian political activity in the Arab eastern sector of Jerusalem is illegal under interim peace accords.
Israel seized East Jerusalem in 1967, subsequently annexing it and declaring it its unified capital, a move which is not recognised internationally.
With the corruption-tainted Fatah movement facing a strong electoral threat from its chief rival Hamas, analysts say an Israeli ban on Jerusalem voting would provide it with a convenient excuse for delaying the vote.
In the first Palestinian parliamentary election in 1996 and presidential elections a year ago, some East Jerusalemites were permitted to vote by absentee ballot in a small number of Israeli post offices, while others attended polling stations in nearby suburbs on the West Bank, outside the municipality boundaries.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank city of Hebron yesterday, Jewish settlers threw eggs and a chemical substance at Israeli soldiers who distributed eviction notices to eight squatter families who took over a Palestinian market area four years ago and have been given two weeks to leave.
Also yesterday, the recently elected chairman of Israel's Likud Party Benjamin Netanyahu announced that his party's four remaining cabinet ministers will resign from the government at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.
The Likud ministers had remained in government after their former leader, prime minister Aerial Sharon, quit last November to form a new party, Kadima, ahead of general elections next March.
Mr Sharon (77), who suffered a mild stroke last month, will undergo surgery tomorrow to repair a small hole in his heart.