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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Hamas: PNC meeting rendered PLO institutions illegitimate |
| 2009-09-15 |
| Ma'an -- The Hamas movement said on Monday that it would continue to view Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) institutions as illegitimate until they are reformed through elections. Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said that recent elections for the PLO's Executive Committee were "a real farce, and they represent intrusion and violation of the Organization's law." Abu Zuhri said he was taking into consideration remarks by Palestinian People's Party official Abdul Rahim Mallouh, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, who said earlier that there may have been legal problems with the election in August, which took place during a meeting of members of the Palestinian National Council (PNC). During the meeting, Mallouh said, PNC non-members voted, while members of the council were not invited to the meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority. For Abu Zuhri, this was further evidence of violations of an agreement that called for reform of the PLO: "Based on this and other violations of the Cairo Agreement in 2005, Hamas confirms its position that since everything based on the recent national meeting of the [National] Council is legally invalid, and all the existing PLO institutions are illegal until its restructuring through the ballot box." Hamas and other Islamist parties are formally excluded from the PLO, the organization that represents the Palestinians in international organizations such as the United Nations. In the past Hamas leaders have also called for the PLO to be replaced with a more inclusive organization. The issue of elections is especially sensitive, as Hamas, Fatah, and other factions spar over a previous agreement to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in the West Bank and Gaza in January. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Will you stop talking and start booming! |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-09-15 04:07 |