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Elections Archive - February 2008
Elections Archive - February 2008
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for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel Elections Archive - February 2008 |
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Egyptian official: Palestinian condition desperate, will work to lift Gaza siege IMEMC Staff, International Middle East Media Center 2/28/2008 The Palestinian Foreign Minister, Ahmad Abu Al Ghiet, told Egyptian media on Thursday that the Palestinian internal condition is now worse than ever. He also said that his country will continue to make efforts to bring the Palestinian rivals Fatah and Hamas together in an agreement that will serve the best interests of the Palestinians. Abu Al Ghiet also announced that his country is making great efforts to end the seven-month siege Israel has imposed on the Gaza strip. He said, "the humanitarian conditions in Gaza are very bad and against all international human right law." The Hamas movement won the Palestinian elections in 2006. Months later, Hamas formed the first Palestinian national unity government. In June 2007, Hamas ended seven months of bloody infighting with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party by forcibly taking over the Gaza strip. Abbas: Hamas helping Al-Qaida establish base in Gaza Strip Yoav Stern and Haaretz Service, Ha’aretz 2/27/2008 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday said that Al-Qaida militants have infiltrated the Gaza Strip and are receiving assistance from Hamas in establishing a base of operations in the Strip. "An alliance has formed between these two organizations," Abbas told the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat on Wednesday. Abbas leveled harsh criticism at Hamas in the interview, calling the group "a dark organization that wants to establish its own fiefdom in the Gaza Strip, without any concern for the national aspirations of the Palestinian people, aspirations which are threatened by their actions." Abbas repeated his call for Hamas to renew ties with Fatah, saying that if the group loosened their grip on the Gaza Strip new elections for the Palestinian presidency and parliament could take place. Abbas accuses the rival Hamas movement of aiding Al Qaida Ghassan Bannoura, International Middle East Media Center 2/27/2008 The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah movement accused their rivals Hamas of providing aid to Al Qaida to establish a base of operations in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. Abbas statement came during an interview with the London based Al-Hayat news paper published Wednesday. The Palestinian president also said in an interview published in Arabic, that Palestinian Parliamentary and Presidential elections could take place if the Hamas movement relinquishes control of the Gaza strip. The Hamas movement won the 2006 Palestinian elections which led to internationally imposed sanctions. Infighting between the Abbas led Fatah and Hamas, which left Hamas in control of Gaza and Fatah controlling the West Bank. Abbas told Al-Hayat," I think Al-Qaida does exist in Gaza, and Hamas control over the region facilitated that. Kadima MKs discuss Jerusalem without Olmert Attila Somfalvi, YNetNews 2/25/2008 As prime minister continues his official visit to Japan, his faction’s members take advantage of his absence to express their objection to negotiations on capital - Eleven Kadima Knesset members met Monday afternoon at the Knesset to discuss the diplomatic negotiations and their fear of talks with the Palestinians on the future of Jerusalem. Most of the meeting attendees expressed their absolute objection to a division of the capital and even to discussions on its future. The MKs, who had apparently taken advantage of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s trip to Japan, suggested that the party’s institutions discuss "any change in Kadima’s platform." MK Yoel Hasson even suggested that if Israel reached a diplomatic agreement with the Palestinians, the prime minister would be obligated to present the agreement to the public and receive its approval through elections or a referendum. Caretaker gov’t: Hamas is hard to eliminate Palestinian Information Center 2/13/2008 GAZA, (PIC)-- The PA caretaker government headed by Hamas renowned leader Ismail Haneyya stated that Hamas could not be eliminated because it represents more than half of the Palestinian people who gave it a vote of confidence during the last legislative elections. In a press release, Taher Al-Nunu, the spokesman for the government, opined that if the IOF troops tried to invade Gaza, they would not depart victorious because any triumph is related to a conflict of wills. Regarding the contradictory statements of Israeli war minister Ehud Barak who announced his intention to wage a military operation against Gaza, but later he said that Gaza invasion would not bear fruit, Nunu explained that these statements refer to the conflicting decisions made by the Israeli government and to the presence of arguments over making an adventure in Gaza. Hamas renews call for ceasefire with Israel Middle East Online 2/12/2008 JERUSALEM - A Hamas official on Tuesday renewed calls for a ceasefire amid mounting Israeli demands for a broad military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Writing in the Israeli daily Haaretz, Ahmed Yussef, a Hamas foreign policy advisor, called for a long-term ceasefire between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces. "If the people of (the southern Israeli town of) Sderot want to know why rockets continue to land around them, they should ask their own government why it has continually rejected our calls for a ceasefire and continued its policy of daily incursions and reckless targeting that put the whole population at risk," he wrote. Yussef pointed out that his democratically movement observed a unilateral ceasefire for the nine months before it won parliamentary elections in January 2006 and for six months thereafter. Fatah pushing major revamp in run-up to next vote Avi Issacharoff, Ha’aretz 2/13/2008 RAMALLAH - Fatah is undergoing unprecedented internal reforms to democratize the ailing movement in the face of the electoral threat from political rivals such as Hamas and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The reforms include organizing its membership rolls in a move that could reduce widespread fraud and holding regional elections in the West Bank and Gaza ahead of a primary election for its top leaders - the first such leadership elections since 1989. "Over the last few months, Fatah has undergone a change the likes of which have not taken place in the past 19 years," Azzam al-Ahmed, a Fatah leader in the West Bank, said in an interview with Haaretz. "The movement understood that without closing ranks, reorganizing from the administrative perspective and rejuvenating the cadre of members, we will have difficulty facing the two most significant challenges: Hamas and Israel. Hamas’s spokesperson: convention of PNC is illegal Rami Almeghari & Agencies, International Middle East Media Center 2/10/2008 Spokesperson of the ruling Hamas movement in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, considered Sunday that any session of the Palestinian national council (PNC) is illegal for preempting the Cairo agreement on preparations for a new secretariat general of the PNC. Speaking to reporters in Gaza, Abu Zuhri maintained that the current bodies of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), of which Hamas is not a member, do not have the authorization to discuss latest developments in Palestine. Palestinian parties, involving Hamas and the rival major Fatah party, agreed in Cairo in 2006 to lay the foundations for a new Palestinian national council, in light of the 2006’s parliamentary elections that Hamas won overwhelmingly. Since taking power, Hamas has been demanding a reform of the PLO , of which the Palestinian National Council is an organ, in accordance with the reelections’ results. Shas preparing for elections it expects will be held this year Mazal Mualem, Ha’aretz 2/8/2008 Shas chairman Eli Yishai has begun preparing his party for elections, believing they may be held before the end of the year. Yishai reiterated the order by the party’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, to quit Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government immediately if Jerusalem is discussed in the talks with the Palestinians. I don’t know how long this government will keep going; I assume there will be elections soon, perhaps even before the local authorities’ elections scheduled for November," Yishai said on Wednesday at a meeting of Shas activists in Tiberias. Yishai said in private conversations that now that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had "survived" the Winograd Report and managed to keep the Labor Party in the government, he would advance a deal to release abducted soldier Gilad Shalit and accelerate the talks with the Palestinians. Arabs heed Obama’s call for change Alaa Bayoumi, Al Jazeera 2/4/2008 If it were not for Barack Obama, many Arabs would not even bother to follow the results of the US presidential race on Super Tuesday. Such gloomy views could be attributed to Arabs’ negative attitudes toward governments and politics in general. Arabs have been living under authoritarian governments, many of them US allies, for decades. And the US’s traditional support for Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, coupled with the war on Iraq, has meant Arab mistrust of the US has dipped to new lows in recent years. Against this backdrop, it is easy to see why many Arabs will not be following the latest news from the US presidential primary elections. ’Offensive’ rhetoric Many do not see any serious differences between the Republican and Democratic candidates who are taking part in the race. Hamas resistance fighters from Nablus give up their weapons Ghassan Bannoura, International Middle East Media Center 2/5/2008 A group of Hamas resistance fighters from the northern West Bank city of Nablus gave up their weapons on Tuesday in a bid to end the state of internal division in the city. The fighters were recently released from Palestinian Authority jails. At a press conference on Tuesday the fighters said their action was a bid to end the state of internal unrest in the city. They added that they recognize the legitimacy of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his forces. Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006, and shortly afterwards formed its National Unity government. Due to international pressure, which manifested in an economic embargo enforced by the USA, UK, EU and Russia, an internal bloody conflict erupted between President Abbas’ Fatah party and Hamas. On June 14 2007 Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, leaving Fatah ruling the West Bank. Ahmadinejad battles on the home front Khody Akhavi, Asia Times 2/5/2008 WASHINGTON - Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has garnered headlines around the world for his defiance of Washington, as well as his rhetorical grandstanding on Palestinian issues, Israel and his government’s alleged support of Shi’ite militias in Iraq. Still, it appears that Iran’s parliamentary elections in March will be determined less by debates over the country’s foreign policy than by rising criticism of incompetence and economic mismanagement of conservatives and hardliners in the legislature and in Ahmadinejad’s office." Ahmadinejad is in trouble, not only because his economic policies have not worked; he has managed to antagonize almost the entire Iranian elite because of his exclusivist management style," said Farideh Farhi, an independent researcher on Iran and political scientist at the University of Hawaii.  Articles
The Arab boycott Akiva Eldar, Ha’aretz 2/28/2008 Kosovo’s declaration of independence earlier this month sent spokespeople for the Israeli right scurrying to the television studios. "Israel must not recognize Kosovo’s independence," warned MK Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday from the Knesset podium. "Anyone who says it’s not a precedent for anywhere else is mistaken. It is a precedent." The Yisrael Beitenu party chairman noted that Yasser Abed Rabbo, adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was threatening that the Palestinians would follow the Kosovo precedent and unilaterally declare independence if negotiations with Israel failed. "There is no doubt that this precedent could lead - not today, but in five or 10 years - the Arabs of the Galilee to announce: ’We declare our independence,’" Lieberman warned. Israeli Arabs did not need the Kosovars to plant the idea of unilateral disengagement from the State of Israel. An internal document, revealed here for the first time - "Arab Society and the Elections for the 18th Knesset" - was prepared several months ago by the bureau of National Infrastructures Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who heads the ministerial committee on non-Jewish sector issues. The document, which is subtitled: "Arab Representation in the Knesset in Danger," warns that the next Knesset elections could serve "as a catalyst for the realization of the internal election plan for the Arabs in Israel and the beginning of the formation of an autonomous Arab parliament." According to the report, this will happen if the head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, Sheikh Ra’ad Salah, in concert with the other movements that boycott Israeli elections, is able to bring about a situation in which less than half the Arab population votes in the general election. Three Scenarios Ghassan Khatib, MIFTAH 2/25/2008 There are enough reasons to believe that the current escalation between Israel and Hamas in Gaza will continue. There are also reasons to believe that the two sides are pursuing both short- and long-term political objectives for such an escalation. Separating Gaza from the West Bank, both de facto and de jure, is one component of the unilateral Israeli strategy that started with the withdrawal from Gaza. Israel hopes thereby, among other things, to undermine Palestinian aspirations to establish a state in all the occupied Palestinian territory that includes the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This plan, however, was interrupted by Hamas’ victory in parliamentary elections in 2006 and then further by the movement’s military takeover of Gaza in 2007. Israel could not allow Gaza under Hamas control to be opened to the world through Egypt, because that would not only increase Hamas’ chances of survival but also allow the Islamist movement to grow in both political and military strength. Hence, Israel modified its strategy and decided to impose a full closure on the impoverished strip to suffocate Hamas as well as the people of Gaza. The EU is marginalizing itself in Gaza Stuart Reigeluth, Daily Star 2/15/2008 Two years have passed since Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections. Two years in which the international boycott has ostracized and further radicalized the Islamic movement, leading to its takeover of the Gaza Strip last July, in a move that consolidated its geographic and political separation from the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Two years, also, which recently culminated in the breaching of the southern Gaza border with Egypt and renewed Israeli preparations for a massive offensive against the strip. The European Union has expressed concern as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has deteriorated to unprecedented levels during the two years in which EU monitors were meant to supervise the passage of Palestinians at the Rafah crossing, but now find themselves restricted to the Dan Gardens beach resort in Ashkelon. Where Are the American Jewish Condemnations? Sherri Muzher, Palestine Chronicle 2/9/2008 For years now, I have heard demands that those of us Americans and of Palestinian descent condemn various military actions.And we do because innocents should never pay for the sins of their military forces and government. I’d like to know if the Jewish community will ever condemn the intentional starvation and collective punishment of an entire Gazan population? The silence has been deafening at this inhumanity. I’ve heard that Palestinians have invited these brutal measures after they elected Hamas during internationally-observed elections, since Hamas refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Setting aside that the elections were about corruption, Palestinians said nothing when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert invited Avigdor Leiberman to his cabinet. Leiberman, once praised by Jewish extremists for supporting the deportation of Palestinians inside Israel, is known as an avid racist. Putting Humpty Together Again in Gaza Tim Mcgirk, MIFTAH 2/2/2008 Egypt’s efforts to restore order on its breached border with Gaza suffered a setback Wednesday in Cairo, when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refused to talk to the leaders of Hamas. Needing a Palestinian partner to police the Rafah crossing, President Hosni Mubarak had invited his Palestinian counterpart to meet with leaders of the Islamist movement that has, since last summer, been the only effective authority in Gaza. But Abbas’s refusal to acknowledge the facts on the ground created by Hamas’s takeover of the territory left the Egyptians with no easy way forward. By tearing down the border wall between Egypt and Gaza last week and breaking Israel’s siege, Hamas dramatically altered the equation between Israel, the Palestinians and Egypt. It also frustrated attempts by the Bush Administration, its Palestinian protege Abbas and Israel to isolate the radical movement that refuses to recognize the Jewish State. Two years after the Palestinians’ legislative elections made clear that Hamas cannot be ignored, the explosions at the Rafah crossing reaffirmed that reality. But while the Egyptians have recognized that reality, President Abbas surely hasn’t. LinksAdalah Adalah (Justice in Arabic) is the first non-profit, non-sectarian Palestinian-run legal center in Israel. The main goal of Adalah’s work is to achieve equal rights and minority rights protections for Palestinian citizens of Israel. Addameer Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights Organization: Addameer (conscience) is a Palestinian non-governmental, civil institution which focuses on human rights issues. Supports Palestinian prisoners, advocates for rights of political prisoners, works to end torture. Amnesty International Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights. AI’s vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. Amnesty International USA Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights. AI’s vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. Arab Association for Human Rights - HRA The HRA was founded in 1988 to promote and protect the political, civil, economic, and cultural rights of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel and to further the domestic implementation of international human rights principles. It is an independent non-governmental organisation registered in Israel. Association for Civil Rights in Israel - ACRI The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) was founded in 1972 as a non-political and independent body, with the goal of protecting human and civil rights in Israel and in the territories under Israeli control. B’tselem The Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch is an independent, nongovernmental organization, supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations worldwide. Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. Occupation Prisoners News stories and reports about Palestinian prisoners from International Press Center, of the Palestinian National Authority’s State Information Service. Palestinian Centre for Human Rights The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) is an independent legal body based in Gaza City dedicated to protecting human rights, promoting the rule of law, and upholding democratic principles in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Palestinian Prisoners Society The Palestinian Prisoner Society is a social and human institution and its members are prisoners inside prisons and released prisoners. Membership is open to every Palestinian prisoner inside and outside prisons who meets the conditions of membership. Physicians for Human Rights - Israel Physicians for Human Rights - Israel (PHR-Israel) was established in 1988 as a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, dedicated to promoting and protecting the medical human rights of all residents of Israel and the Occupied Territories. Public Committee Against Torture in Israel - PCATI An independent human rights organization founded that monitors the implementation conditions in detention centers and continues the struggle against the use of torture in interrogation in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine The main collection contains the texts of current and historical United Nations material concerning the question of Palestine and other issues related to the Middle East situation and the search for peace. World Organisation Against Torture OMCT is today the largest international coalition of NGOs fighting against torture,summary executions, forced disappearances and all other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in order to preserve Human Rights. It has at its disposal a network, SOS Torture, consisting of some 240 non-governmental organisations which act as sources of information.
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