After many long months of negotiations between Fatah and Hamas, the parties finally agreed Dec. 10 to hold elections — first for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), and then, three months later, for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority. Current President Mahmoud Abbas demanded that Israel once again allow Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem to vote — a controversial issue that was resolved in all sorts of creative ways in the past. Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh has already approached the relevant parties in Israel to request their approval for this.
With all due respect to internal Palestinian agreements, Israel has no right to be satisfied with them alone. It must insist that no Palestinian individual or group that expects to achieve its goals through undemocratic means is allowed to participate in these elections, as stated in the interim agreement of September 1995. The fact that Hamas already participated in previous Palestinian elections cannot be used to justify repeating that terrible mistake.
