Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Monday said the United States has assured him that, despite Israeli misgivings, East Jerusalem Palestinians will be allowed to vote in the city and the Palestinian Authority elections will therefore go ahead as scheduled on January 25.
He added, however, that the elections would not take place if Israel decides to prevent voting in Jerusalem.
‘We are on the way to elections and there's no doubt about it, but if something happens along the way, we'll decide how to act. We have not heard from the Israeli side anything to make us certain voting will take place in Jerusalem. We've only heard vague things from them,’ Abbas said.
Contrary to the statements of various Palestinian factions, Abbas said the security truce is not for a limited period and should continue in 2006.
Abbas' announcement confirmed a previous statment made by Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Shaath earlier Monday.
The United States, however, refused to confirm or deny Abbas' statements, Israel Radio reported before dawn Tuesday morning.
Israel has said it may block voting in East Jerusalem because Hamas is running in the election. The militant group is dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state.
However, government sources in Jerusalem said on Monday that Israel would not give Abbas an excuse to postpone the elections. If it appears that Israeli objections to voting in East Jerusalem are the only reason for postponement, then Israel will reconsider its position, they said.
Israeli sources added that they had never mentioned preventing voting in East Jerusalem during talks with the Americans, and downplayed the importance of the American-Palestinian agreement.
Israel assumes that Abbas will put off the elections, and therefore the issue will not be put to the test.
Israel said East Jerusalem residents can vote freely in nearby Palestinian cities such as Abu Dis.
Haaretz has learned that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's adviser, Dov Weissglas, met last week with the American envoys supervising the elections to clarify Israel's position.
People who participated in the meeting told Haaretz that Weissglas told them Israel would enable election candidates to campaign in municipal Jerusalem if they coordinated this in advance with the East Jerusalem police. However, Israel would not allow East Jerusalem residents to cast their ballots at the city's post office branches, he said, as they did in 1996 and 2005.
The United States has discreetly resumed its efforts to resolve the conflict in the Middle East. U.S. officials said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had spoken to Abbas and discussed the region with other international powerbrokers.
On Tuesday, Assistant Secretary of State David Welch and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams will begin a trip to the region that they postponed after Sharon went into hospital on Wednesday for preparation talks on the elections. The U.S. is exerting heavy pressure on Abbas to hold the elections on schedule.
‘In terms of contacts at the working level, those do continue... there are still agreements in place that require follow-up. We are following up,’ State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Israel to allow some E. J'lem campaigning
Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra said on Monday said Israel is allowing candidates for Palestinian legislative elections to campaign in East Jerusalem as long as they do not belong to militant groups.
‘All those who want to campaign will submit requests in advance to the Jerusalem police, and only those who don't represent extremist groups will receive permission,’ Ezra told Israel Radio. There was no immediate word, however, on whether Israel would allow voting to take place in the city.
Candidates from East Jerusalem will meet Monday with Jerusalem police representatives in order to coordinate campaign details, such as the location of posters and guidelines for assembly within the city.
The ease on campaign restrictions does not include Hamas, who vowed to defy the Israeli ban on its group's campaign. ‘We will carry out our electioneering campaign whether the occupation agrees or not. We have the means and the ways to do so despite of the Israeli decision,’ Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Earlier this month, police blocked Palestinians from electioneering in East Jerusalem when campaigning for the poll began. Israel says Palestinian political activity in the city is banned under interim accords. Palestinians dispute this.
The last Palestinian legislative election was in 1996, when voting was allowed in East Jerusalem.
Western countries are keen for the vote to take place on time as a way of strengthening Palestinian democracy but are wary of a strong showing by Hamas, which has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings during the recent Palestinian uprising, begun in 2000.
Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem have Israeli identity cards but see themselves as citizens of a future Palestinian state of which Jerusalem is capital.