State seeks solution for E. J'lem voters in PLC elections

Israel is seeking a solution that will permit East Jerusalem residents to vote in the elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council, but allow the government to adhere to its opposition to Hamas' participation in the ballot. Israel also wants a solution that will prevent the state from being accused of delaying the elections.

In a meeting on Monday with Labor chairman MK Amir Peretz, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said "an arrangement will be found," but refrained from elaborating.

Last week, senior officials informed the head of the EU observer mission to the Palestinian Authority, Veronique de Keyser, that the government would not allow voting to take place in sovereign Israeli territory if Hamas, which calls for the destruction of Israel, was to participate in the elections.

The PA responded by announcing that if Israel prevented voting in East Jerusalem, the elections would be postponed.

The participation of East Jerusalem residents in Palestinian elections is seeped in symbolism. Under an arrangement reached in the Oslo Accords, Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem are allowed to vote in the West Bank, or at polling stations set up at post offices in the eastern part of the capital, with the intention being to show that the ballots are being mailed to the PA.

In practice, few Palestinian Jerusalemites have exercised this right in the past. In the PA presidential elections at the beginning of the year, just 5,000 East Jerusalem residents went to the polls, with most casting their ballots at polling stations in Abu Dis. Around 1,000 voted at the East Jerusalem post offices.

Now, if Hamas participates in the elections, Israel has said it will not allow its post offices to be used. A senior political source said yesterday that this position had not been changed.

Nevertheless, Israel is remaining publicly vague and is refraining from presenting a clear-cut position so as not to be blamed by the Palestinians for delaying the elections. Israeli officials believe PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, fearing a crushing defeat for Fatah, would like to see the elections postponed and is looking for a way out.

"We don't want to be accused of tripping up democratic elections, but we are not willing to cooperate in the holding of elections with the participation of Hamas," a political source in Jerusalem said yesterday. "Therefore, we have made an announcement to the effect that a decision on the matter has yet to be made."

Jerusalem is waiting for Abbas' next move on the matter before finalizing its position.