Palestinian Parties Reject Canceling Elections

A protest against postponing the elections in front of the headquarters of the Central Elections Commission in Gaza (dpa)
A protest against postponing the elections in front of the headquarters of the Central Elections Commission in Gaza (dpa)
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Palestinian Parties Reject Canceling Elections

A protest against postponing the elections in front of the headquarters of the Central Elections Commission in Gaza (dpa)
A protest against postponing the elections in front of the headquarters of the Central Elections Commission in Gaza (dpa)

Rumors that the Israeli government has agreed to allow the elections to take place, including in East Jerusalem, are “unfounded,” the Palestinian Authority (PA) has announced.

Earlier, Israel tried to embarrass Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by suggesting that it does not interfere in the elections and holding them depends on Abbas himself.

Fatah Central Committee Member Hussein al-Sheikh said “the Israeli government has officially informed us that the Israeli position on holding elections in East Jerusalem remains negative.”

Sheikh stressed the party that must receive the official Israeli decision is the Palestinian National Authority.

The Israel Hayom newspaper and Walla website have reported that Tel Aviv will not interfere in the polls, and it informed European countries that it did not prevent the Palestinian elections from taking place in Jerusalem.

Head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s political department Alan Bar said in a meeting with 13 European ambassadors that Tel Aviv views the Palestinian elections an internal matter and will not intervene in the polls.

He claimed that Israel has not taken any official position on the elections in East Jerusalem, telling the ambassadors that it was up to Abbas to make the decision.

The statements consolidated the belief among Palestinian opposition and electoral blocs that Abbas has a desire to cancel the elections over disagreements within Fatah and the formation of alternative lists of the movement's leaders.

Member of Hamas politburo Mousa Abu Marzouk confirmed the movement’s rejection to postpone the elections under any pretext, warning any such move would affect the future of Palestinian reconciliation.

The official asserted Hamas’ position on holding the polls in Jerusalem, saying the justifications for postponement are “unrealistic.”

Nashaat al-Aqtash, the campaign manager of the independent Watan candidates, said the list “will not recognize the postponement.”

“The reason is that the president issued the election decree and no longer has the authority to issue decrees at this stage. It is now up to the election commission,” indicated Aqtash, who is also a media professor at Bir Zeit University.

Fatah media official Munir al-Jaghoub responded by saying that the Palestinian factions signed an agreement in Cairo that there would be no elections without Jerusalem.

Fatah argues that the matter is related to sovereign and legal issues, given that East Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinian state.

A number of electoral lists sent a letter to Abbas, and another copy to the chairman of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission (PCEC) Hanna Nasser, stressing the importance of implementing the presidential decree to hold legislative, presidential, and National Council elections on their specified dates.

They indicated that the elections are a long-awaited fundamental right that must be implemented for political and national reasons and a commitment to the popular demand of over 90 percent of the electorate.

The message stressed the importance of renewing the legitimacy of all Palestinian institutions to enable them to face the challenges that threaten the Palestinian cause.

Abbas is expected to hold a meeting with the factions to discuss the legislative elections, and he is anticipated to deliver a speech on Thursday announcing the postponement of the elections over the failure to hold them in Jerusalem.



Anxiety Clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
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Anxiety Clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP

In the mainly Christian Palestinian town of Zababdeh, the runup to Easter has been overshadowed by nearby Israeli military operations, which have proliferated in the occupied West Bank alongside the Gaza war.

This year unusually Easter falls on the same weekend for all of the town's main Christian communities -- Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican --- and residents have attempted to busy themselves with holiday traditions like making date cakes or getting ready for the scout parade.

But their minds have been elsewhere.

Dozens of families from nearby Jenin have found refuge in Zababdeh from the continual Israeli military operations that have devastated the city and its adjacent refugee camp this year.

"The other day, the (Israeli) army entered Jenin, people were panicking, families were running to pick up their children," said Zababdeh resident Janet Ghanam.

"There is a constant fear, you go to bed with it, you wake up with it," the 57-year-old Anglican added, before rushing off to one of the last Lenten prayers before Easter.

Ghanam said her son had told her he would not be able to visit her for Easter this year, for fear of being stuck at the Israeli military roadblocks that have mushroomed across the territory.

Zabadeh's Anglican church was busy in the runup to Easter but across the West Bank Christian communities have been in sharp decline as people emigrate in search of a better life abroad.

Zabadeh looks idyllic, nestled in the hills of the northern West Bank, but the roar of Israeli air force jets sometimes drowns out the sound of its church bells.

"It led to a lot of people to think: 'Okay, am I going to stay in my home for the next five years?'" said Saleem Kasabreh, an Anglican deacon in the town.

"Would my home be taken away? Would they bomb my home?"

- 'Existential threat' -

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and in recent months far-right ministers in its coalition government have called for the annexation of swathes of the territory.

Kasabreh said this "existential threat" was compounded by constant "depression" at the news from Gaza, where the death toll from the Israel's response to Hamas's October 2023 attack now tops 51,000, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Work has been hard to find for Zababdeh's mainly Christian residents since Israel rescinded Palestinian work permits following the October 2023 attack by Hamas that sparked the Gaza war.

Zababdeh has been spared the devastation wreaked on Gaza, but the mayor's office says nearly 450 townspeople lost their jobs in Israel when Palestinian work permits were rescinded after the Hamas attack.

"Israel had never completely closed us in the West Bank before this war," said 73-year-old farmer Ibrahim Daoud. "Nobody knows what will happen".

Many say they are stalked by the spectre of exile, with departures abroad fuelling fears that Christians may disappear from the Holy Land.

"People can't stay without work and life isn't easy," said 60-year-old maths teacher Tareq Ibrahim.

Mayor Ghassan Daibes echoed his point.

"For a Christian community to survive, there must be stability, security and decent living conditions. It's a reality, not a call for emigration," he said.

"But I´m speaking from lived experience: Christians used to make up 30 percent of the population in Palestine; today, they are less than one percent.

"And this number keeps decreasing. In my own family, I have three brothers abroad -- one in Germany, the other two in the United States."

Catholic priest Father Elias Tabban insists the hard times his congregation has been going though have deepened their faith.

Catholic priest Elias Tabban adopted a more stoical attitude, insisting his congregation's spirituality had never been so vibrant.

"Whenever the Church is in hard times... (that's when) you see the faith is growing," Tabban said.