Arafat Defies Israel on Meet Ban as Israeli Court Lifts Ban on Arab MPs

09/01/2003| IslamWeb

A quarter of the members of the Palestinians' highest legal body gathered at President Yasser Arafat's headquarters on Thursday in a show of defiance against an Israeli travel ban blocking a full quorum. "We're giving the message that no one can stop us," Arafat told reporters in his battered complex in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Israel tightened restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and banned members of the Palestinian Central Council from traveling to a Ramallah session set for Thursday, after a resistance bombing killed 22 people in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

The PCC's 121 members were to have discussed a draft constitution as part of Palestinian Authority  reforms which the United States, the main Middle East peace broker, has demanded as a condition for statehood.

The members who came to Arafat's office on Thursday live in Ramallah.

Arafat said Israel was taking every step to make the Palestinians kneel, "but our people are like a mountain, steadfast, and cannot be shaken by the wind."

Israel has also banned Palestinian officials from attending a mid-January conference in London, sponsored by Britain, on reforms and peace. Britain has appealed to Israel to reconsider.

Israeli officials say travel restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are aimed at preventing Palestinian resistance bombers from reaching Israeli cities. Palestinians call the edicts collective punishment.

Palestinian cabinet minister Nabil Shaath said the discussion and approval of a draft constitution that includes reforms would have to wait until the PCC was allowed to meet.

"This constitution would be presented to the people for referendum after discussion by the various Palestinian institutions," Shaath said.

Arab Lawmakers Allowed on Israeli Ballot

Israel's Supreme Court on Thursday restored the candidacy of two Arab legislators in a ruling expected to help block a tidal wave of resentment by Israel's large Arab minority.

Also Thursday, four polls conducted in the wake of new corruption charges indicated that Pime Minister Ariel Sharon  may have lost his wide lead over dovish challenger Amram Mitzna and is no longer assured victory in the Jan. 28 election.

The high court ruling was rendered by 11 justices, a number usually reserved for landmark cases. The court overturned a decision two weeks ago by the Central Election Commission to disqualify Arab legislators Azmi Bishara and Ahmed Tibi on grounds they sided with Israel's enemies.

The court ruled unanimously on Tibi and 7-4 on Bishara. The judges' arguments were not immediately released.
Bishara and Tibi welcomed the court ruling as a victory for Israel's democracy.

"I think the Supreme Court ... is trying to be more sincere and committed to democratic values than the parliament itself, especially during hard times - and these are hard times," Bishara said.

Many of Israel's 1.2 million Arab citizens saw the case as a watershed in their troubled relations with the Jewish majority.

Israeli Arabs have long complained of discrimination at the hands of Israeli governments, and the disqualification of Bishara and Tibi was seen as an attempt to curb the Arab voice.

The Central Election Commission had accused Bishara of inciting violence against Israel, including during a trip to Syria where he praised Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, while Tibi allegedly sided with Yasser Arafat  and his Palestinian Authority against the Jewish state. Both legislators denied the charges, saying they oppose violence, and were simply criticizing Israeli government policy.

In other decisions, the high court upheld the candidacy of Baruch Marzel, a Jewish extremist who was once a leading figure in Kach, a movement founded by U.S.-born Rabbi Meir Kahane and later outlawed as racist.

The court also disqualified the candidacy of Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, saying he had not been out of the occupation army long enough to run for parliament. Mofaz is a former occupation army chief of staff.

Thursday's polls indicated that Sharon's right-wing Likud party is continuing to lose seats in the 120-member parliament, a trend that began about a month ago.

Under the Israeli system, voters choose parties, not candidates for prime minister. A party leader must stitch together a majority coalition to win the premiership, and as Likud slips, the task of forming a government that once looked like an automatic Sharon success becomes less clear-cut.

A survey in the Haaretz daily showed Likud winning 27 seats, down from about 40 at the beginning of the campaign in November. Labor was up from 22 to 24.

According to the Haaretz poll, Likud and its allies would win only 61 seats, a bare majority, down from 67 in November, while Labor and its partners would receive 40 seats, up from 27. Centrist parties - Shinui and Am Echad - would get 19, the poll predicted. The Haaretz-Dialogue poll questioned 521 eligible voters and had a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.

A survey for the Yediot Aharonot newspaper gave Likud 28 seats, Labor 22 and Shinui 17. It polled 653 people and cited a 3.4 percent margin of error.

The Maariv daily's poll showed Likud winning 30 seats, Labor 22 and Shinui 14. Like Haaretz, it projected the right-wing bloc overall as commanding 61 seats. It said it questioned 1,000 people but gave no margin of error.

Another survey, conducted by Geocartographia for Israeli occupation army radio showed Likud getting 32 seats, Labor 20 and Shinui 15. The radio did not give its poll's margin of error.

The surveys were taken after Haaretz printed a leaked Justice Ministry document that showed that police were investigating Sharon and his sons in connection with a 1.5 million dlrs loan they received from a South Africa-based businessman to cover payback of illegal campaign funds from a previous election.

Likud was already losing momentum because of a scandal over alleged payoffs, shakedowns and other corruption in internal elections for its list of candidates for parliament.

Sharon denounced the report about the investigation as "disgraceful political slander," and said he would counter it with documents and facts.

PHOTO CAPTION

Members of the Palestinian Central Council talk to President Yasser Arafat  during a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah January 9, 2003. A quarter of the members of the Palestinians' highest legal body gathered at Arafat's headquarters in a show of defiance against an Israeli travel ban blocking a full quorum. Photo by Osama Silwadi/Reuters