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Elections Archive - September 2007
Elections Archive - September 2007
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for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel Elections Archive - September 2007 |
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Abbas changes electoral law to sideline Hamas Compiled by Daily Star staff, Daily Star 9/3/2007 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday he had changed Palestinian electoral rules in a step that could make it harder for Hamas to keep the parliamentary majority it won last year. Abbas said he had issued a new election law which would change the way Palestinians vote in any upcoming parliamentary elections, boosting his Fatah faction, which is dominant in the West Bank against rival Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. The new law requires all presidential and parliamentary candidates to recognize the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) - a move clearly aimed at marginalizing Hamas, which is not art of the PLO. Under the new law, Palestinians would also vote based on national party lists instead of voting both on a national and local level - a step that could hurt Hamas, which trounced Fatah in the local vote in 2006 elections. Abbas unveils amended electoral law Al Jazeera 9/2/2007 The Palestinian president and head of Fatah has announced amendments to electoral law that could prevent Hamas from ruling Gaza after future elections. The statement by Mahmoud Abbas comes after he said candidates in presidential and legislative elections should respect the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Palestinian Authority. "The new election law has been published," Abbas said on Sunday after meeting Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, in Ramallah. Hamas does not adhere to the PLO political programme, which recognises Israel, and has refused to explicitly agree to abide by peace deals made in the past. Party lists The amended law says that all future parliamentary candidates will be chosen according to party lists. A new Palestinian presidential decree restricts running for elections, Hamas criticizes Rami Almeghari - IMEMC & Agencies, International Middle East Media Center 9/2/2007 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued on Sunday a new decree that restricts running for elections as Hamas criticized the move as ’illegal’. The presidential decree presses for changes into the Palestinian legislative and presidential elections, involving respect of the charter of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the independence memo, as a perquisite for running for the elections. It also stipulates that the President has the right to order holding legislative or presidential elections, three months before his term comes to an end. The legislative elections system, according to the proposed law, will involve direct elections on basis of proportional representation ’lists’, based on ’unity’ of the Palestinian territories in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank.  Articles
IMEMC Exclusive: Fatah Alyasser’s chief says his group is a reform-based movement Rami Almeghari, International Middle East Media Center 9/15/2007 In a special interview with the IMEMC, former spokesman of the Hamas’s interior ministry and leader of the newly-established Fatah Alyasser group, Khaled Abu Helal, says his movement has been established to contribute to better reformation of Palestinian politics following the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip What is Fatah Alyasser group Mr. Abu Helal? Fatah Alyasser is a newly-born Palestinian group initiated by Fatah’s loyal people, after the latter have realized the fact that reforming the current Fatah has turned to be an impossible job, especially amidst the monopoly by some Fatah’s corrupt ranks of the decision-making. Can the Palestinian arena currently absorb more groups, in a time there are many other based Palestinian organizations such as the Islamic Jihad, the popular front for the liberation of Palestine, etc..? I believe that the political pluralism in Palestine has turned to be limited, particularly after the last January’s elections, which proved that there are only two major parties, Fatah and Hamas. Fatah Alyasser movement is a group that combines between Islam as reference and the late President Yasser Arafat’s path of struggle at all levels, the political, the national and the resistance. Wishful Thinking will not Cure Economic Ills Bronwen Maddox, MIFTAH 9/20/2007 The original conception of the Government’s report on reviving the Palestinian economy, published yesterday, was a good one – when Gordon Brown commissioned it two years ago. The aim was to find ways to bolster that economy, deliberately separate from the politics. It is an honourable principle that there are few situations so bad that they cannot be improved, even if they cannot be resolved. The approach appealed to Brown, when Chancellor, as a way to avoid Tony Blair’s grandstanding, while tackling problems on the ground. But the past two years have made a nonsense of this approach – and incidentally, of Blair’s new job, which is supposed to focus on the Palestinian economy. Hamas’s victory in the January 2006 elections, the collapse of the joint Hamas-Fatah Government, Hamas’s seizure of Gaza in June, and the disintegration of the economy under Israeli security curbs make it impossible to divorce the economic from the political. Without political progress, there will not be economic progress; there may not even be much worth calling a Palestinian economy. Majda Hassan: The ‘Osloization’ of the Palestinian Left Majda Hassan, Palestine Chronicle 9/20/2007 In spite of its rich revolutionary tradition, the Left has been hijacked by right-wing cabals, whose interest is intertwined with that of the political elite of Oslo. The Osloization of the Palestinian Left is now complete. The opportunistic and unprincipled position taken by the right-wing "Left" of the PLO vis-à-vis the current standoff between Hamas and Fatah is yet another indication of the Left’s inexorabledeterioration which followed its’ implicit acceptance of the Oslo accords—despite its alleged opposition to that agreement. In fact, the People’s Party never opposed the accords, but rather legitimized them by its acceptance of ministerial positions in almost every government formed since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. Judging by statements and analyses presented by the main Left organizations and individuals, one could conclude that, in spite of its rich revolutionary tradition, the Left has been hijacked by right-wing cabals, whose interest is intertwined with that of the political elite of Oslo. Although I fail to understand how a nation can have elections under the boot of a brutal occupying power, I still naively thought that the Palestinian Left, and liberal forces for that matter, would seize the unique opportunity which arose as a result of that democratic process in January 2006 and support and strengthen it. The long held slogans of "from and for the masses" and "long live the people" turned out to be hollow. Hamas is the key Ahmed Yousef, Ha’aretz 9/21/2007 While largely unnoticed in American discourse on the topic, much has been said and written to debunk the sanctions regime imposed on Hamas government administrations since its resounding victory in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections of January 2006. These calls and reports show with compelling logic that the sanctions regime is wrong and misguided and, equally important, that it is a reaction to the excessively intense pressure that the U.S. administration has exercised over other nations to induce them to boycott and besiege a government democratically elected by the people and to punish the Palestinians for their democratic choice. The Quartet has been spearheading this campaign of isolation against Hamas, and in the process is advancing a U.S.-Israeli agenda whose goal is to delegitimize Hamas and prevent it from exercising its right to lead the Palestinian people, even though the latter have elected it in a transparent, internationally monitored electoral process. A variety of underhanded methods, both internal and external, have been used to undermine the Hamas-led government, including destabilization from within the fragile Palestinian political system. The U.S. government expected the first Hamas government to fall in under three months. When that didn’t happen, Washington delegated to a faction inside Fatah the responsibility of overthrowing Ismail Haniyeh’s government, an effort aimed at reinstalling Fatah. Hamas’ ability to rule has been hampered, indeed paralyzed, by crippling Western pressures, which have only been strengthened by the collaboration of regional powers as well as localPalestinian players. Abbas’ Village League Arjan El Fassed, Electronic Intifada 9/10/2007 For as long Palestinians have resisted violent Israeli policies against them, successive Israeli governments have tried to undermine Palestinian unity and foment divisions. A principal strategy has been to try to foster alternative leaders willing to abandon fundamental Palestinian demands for justice and focus on an agenda with which Israel is comfortable. This is taking place now as Israel shuns the elected Hamas movement, and tries to prop up the discredited Fatah leadership headed by Mahmoud Abbas. Following the elections, Israel kidnapped dozens of elected officials belonging to Hamas and is still holding them in its prisons. There is a great deal of continuity here; a key component of Israeli policy has been to refuse to recognize legitimate Palestinian leadership. While it now embraces the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and shuns Hamas, until 1993 Israel refused to consider the PLO as a possible negotiating partner. Israel could always produce internationally acceptable reasons for such a position. After all, one would not expect a "respectable" country to negotiate with "terrorists," as Israel always did and still does refer to Palestinian leaders. Even after the PLO’s historic concessions in 1988 when the Palestinian National Council, the parliament-in-exile, accepted the two-state solution -- without receiving any reciprocal recognition from Israel -- Israel refused to deal with the PLO directly. The policy goes back even further. 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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