Mahmoud Abbas postpones Palestinian elections; blames Israel's East Jerusalem impasse

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday postponed the scheduled elections for Palestine saying that he needed to guarantee that the voting can take place in Israel-annexed east Jerusalem. At a meeting of Palestinian factions in Ramallah, the 85-year-old Palestinian President said that the parliamentary elections were stalled due to splits in his Fatah party, and Israel’s uncertainty whether it will let the elections take place in the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem. The indefinite postponement of the first Palestinian elections in 15 years was called by the Hamas militant group “a coup”. The group said that Abbas delayed elections fearing an embarrassing defeat to the Hamas. It continued that the decision was welcomed by the West, including the United States, European Union, and Israel as they had declared the militant group a terrorist organization and speculated its growing strength and increasing control over Gaza.

According to the local press reports, the Palestinian President had announced the legislative elections three months ago as people had lost faith in the democratic spirit of the government institutions. The militant Hamas had then fought a well-organized campaign to defeat the internally divided Fatah in 2006. Stating that his decision to postpone May elections was made after thorough consultation with the Palestinian political factions, Abbas said, that he was deferring balloting, not immediately making clear if it would be rescheduled for July ahead. 

“Facing this difficult situation, we decided to postpone the date of holding legislative elections until the participation of Jerusalem and its people is guaranteed,” Abbas said in the speech on Palestinian TV.

PM Netanyahu's office made no statement

The Palestinian Central Elections Commission reportedly announced that it was suspending the election following the Palestinian President’s decision. It was to begin campaigning on Friday. Protesters, however, took to streets on Friday demanding that the Palestinian elections must continue as scheduled, criticizing Abbas’ hasty decision. Meanwhile, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office had made no formal statement on whether his administration would allow the elections to continue in East Jerusalem.

Earlier last week, tensions at the holy city of Jerusalem had escalated as the Palestinians, Gaza militants, Jewish Israeli extremists, and the  Israeli police clashed posing a deep threat to the Israel-Palestine peace in the region. Backed by their political patrons, the Jewish extremists led a provocative march to Jerusalem's walled Old City chanting "death to the Arabs,” seriously injuring at least 105 Palestinians. Even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday called for "calm on all sides" in response to the Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem unrest, Palestine’s Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh lambasted Israel of sponsoring “state terror.”