President Mahmoud Abbas said today that presidential and legislative elections should take place in Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank.
Speaking at the start of a meeting of Fatah Central Committee held in Ramallah, President Abbas said, “We have taken a decision to hold them [elections] as soon as possible, and we have started efforts and measures to do that through the elections commission that started its efforts with the factions to achieve this goal.”
The President continued: “The Chairman of the Central Elections Commission, Hanna Nasser, contacted all the factions, and he informed us that all factions, including Hamas, have agreed to hold legislative and presidential elections, and it remained that we get the approval of the Israeli government to hold the elections in Jerusalem, as happened in 1996, and in 2005 and 2006. We sent an official letter to the Israeli government, and asked all our friends, particularly the European Union, to talk to Israel about this issue, but until now there has been no response from the Israeli government. We are very interested in holding elections because we want to complete our legislative institutions with all the force we have. However, at the same time, they should take place in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and we are awaiting this approval. We will do our best to reach this result, and we must prepare for these elections, which are important to our movement.”
On the Israeli elections, the President said: “They are important because they take place with our neighbors, and they affect us, especially since this is the third time they hold elections without reaching the possibility of forming an Israeli government. These elections will take place on March 2, 2020, and we hope that they will succeed, and we hope that they will come up with people who believe in peace and accept peace with us, so that we will move in the peace process to the end.”
On the relationship with the United States, President Abbas said: “It is a very important issue, and as you know our position from the “deal of the century” is still the same: we reject the deal whether what has already been revealed or what has not yet. We know that what was not revealed may be worse than what was not, but nevertheless we say that our position on the “deal of the century” is fixed, and consequently are our positions from what happened in Warsaw and Bahrain.”
He added: “There is a new issue, which is the hospital issue that the US has decided to build in Gaza, and the airport and the seaport that will follow, mind you that we had an airport and a seaport, but Israel destroyed them. When they go for the hospital, the seaport and the airport, they complete the “deal of the century” in order to separate Gaza from the West Bank, and establish an entity we do not know what it would look like. They want to establish an entity in Gaza, and from here come these things they are doing on such as the seaport, airport and others that will fall into this box.”
He continued: “There are also positive signs related to our relationship with the US that we must mention, most notably yesterday when a draft resolution was passed in Congress that we feared would hurt us, but it did not. This is an appreciated effort by those who made an effort to do so. This is a very important issue that we must pursue because it is one of the most prominent ways that will change the US position towards the Palestinian issue. Here we recall the decision of the Democratic Party that announced a policy against the positions of the Trump and Pompeo administration regarding settlements, two-state solution and the aspirations of the Palestinian people. There were 226 deputies, including five from the Republican Party, that means they are a breakthrough in the Republican Party in our favor at the time when it was closed for us. We should consider this decision good and we must build on it.”
President Abbas also sent his Christmas greetings to Christians everywhere
