JERUSALEM - The Israeli Cabinet voted Sunday to let Palestinians vote in east Jerusalem, a decision intended to keep Jan. 25 Palestinian parliamentary elections on track.
Israel initially had planned to bar voting in the disputed city because candidates from the militant Hamas group were to have appeared on the ballot. The stand had provoked a Palestinian threat to cancel the election.
Under the proposal approved on Sunday, Hamas will not run in east Jerusalem elections, where nine of the Palestinian parliament's 132 seats are in contention.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat welcomed the Cabinet decision and called on international observers to ensure freedom of movement and voting for candidates.
Hamas, campaigning on clean government, is presenting a serious electoral challenge to the ruling Fatah party, which has gained reputation for corruption after more than a decade of running the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinian government's inability to control growing lawlessness on has also bolstered Hamas.
Opinion polls suggest Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has failed to clean up Fatah's image, and the party is running neck-and-neck with Hamas.
Israel's Cabinet unanimously approved the east Jerusalem balloting, stating that the 5,000 eligible voters in the city will participate by voting in post offices, as they did in 1996. Eligible voters can also vote in nearby West Bank polling stations.
The issue of voting in east Jerusalem is largely symbolic, with both Israel and the Palestinians claiming the city as the capital of their states.
With the election just 10 days away, the Palestinian Interior Ministry said Sunday that it had completed preparations to allow its 85,000 security personnel to vote in advance. Sixty polling stations will be opened to police a few days before the Jan. 25 vote, freeing them up to secure the balloting on election day, the ministry said.