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NEWS & LETTERS, January-February 2005Our Life and Times by Kevin A. BarryPalestinian voteThe first Palestinian presidential election in nine years was held in the Israeli occupied territories, on Jan. 9. Of the 1.8 million eligible voters, 70% participated in the election in which Mahmud Abbas, the new chair of the Palestine Liberation Organization, received 62.3% of the vote. The other main contender, Mustafa Barghouti, the head of the Palestine National Initiative, received 19.8% of the vote. In the name of national unity, Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah leader associated with the Al Aqsa faction who is currently imprisoned in Israel, had withdrawn his candidacy and had reluctanly accepted Abbas as the Fatah candidate. However, there are sharp divisions below the surface. Most of the 170,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem were forced to travel long distances and cross check points to get to the West Bank and Gaza to vote. The remaining 5,000 who were allowed to vote locally had to do so through absentee ballots at post offices. In this manner, the Israeli government maintained its disputed claim to sovereignty over East Jerusalem. Prior to the election, Mahmud Abbas had released a statement in which he criticized the militarization of the second Intifiada and condemned suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. This statement also reflected polls that indicated that 51% of the Palestinian population of the occupied territories opposed suicide bombings. A poll conducted by Birzeit University also revealed that the public’s priorities were in the following order: an Israeli withdrawal; economic improvement; resumption of peace talks with Israel. Even Hamas, which had boycotted the presidential election, had made it clear that it would respect the process and would be willing to cooperate with the elected president. Despite the murder of eight Palestinian children by an Israeli tank shell on Jan. 4, the mood in anticipation of the election remained optimistic. A few days after the Palestinian presidential election, however, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon used a bombing and shooting attack sponsored by Hamas and Al Aqsa at a Gaza checkpoint, on Jan. 14, to cut all contact with Abbas. He has now declared that he will not renew contact with Abbas until Abbas stops all acts of violence against Israelis. Clearly this is an impossible task without an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Sharon is intent on carrying out his plan to withdraw from Gaza in order to keep most of the West Bank and all of East Jerusalem. The presence of the Labor Party in the new government coalition will not make any difference given Labor’s shameful history. --Sheila Sahar, Jan. 15, 2005 |
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