Israel will not hamper Palestinian vote: officials

By Ori Lewis

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel does not plan to hamper
upcoming Palestinian parliamentary elections even if Hamas
Islamic militants take part, Israeli officials said on Sunday
in an apparent shift from earlier threats.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said last month that Israel
could hinder voting in the occupied West Bank if the elections
were contested by Hamas, which is sworn to destroying Israel
and has spearheaded a Palestinian uprising.

“Israel will not help the Palestinians if Hamas takes part,
but neither will it hamper the voting in areas where Israel has
control,” an official in Sharon’s office told Reuters.

The apparent change followed a lead set by the United
States, Israel’s key ally, after a White House meeting last
week between President George W. Bush and Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas, who wants to bring Hamas nearer the political
mainstream.

An administration official said the United States still saw
Hamas as a terrorist group but it was up to the Palestinians to
decide who could take part in the election — the first that
Hamas plans to contest. It boycotted the previous vote in 1996.

MOMENTUM

The United States hopes to use the momentum from Israel’s
withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip in September to revive
negotiations on a “road map” for Palestinian statehood.

Abbas has shied away from disarming groups such as Hamas, a
process that the Palestinians are meant to start under the road
map. But he has said that Hamas would no longer need to keep
its weapons after elections.

Hamas, following an eight-month-old truce, has rejected any
suggestion that it would disarm.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said any change in the
Israeli position on the election was “just for public
relations.” He accused Israel of hampering the ballot already
by arresting hundreds of suspected militants, including many
Hamas members, in the West Bank.

Polls show Hamas has about 30 percent support amongst
Palestinians. Its charity network and perceived lack of
corruption, as well as its suicide bombings, have won it
support at the expense of the dominant Fatah movement.

Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni called for foreign
pressure on Hamas to show that it had changed.

“As far as we are concerned, Hamas must make a decision now
– either to participate in politics or to continue to be a
terror organization,” Livni told Israel Radio.

“It is very important, in the run-up to the election, for
the international community to understand that this position is
not pro-Israel or anti-Palestinian,” she said. “Whoever wants
the peace process to move forward should be making this
demand.”

Israel has said there will be no talks on Palestinian
statehood unless militant groups are disarmed, but it has also
not met its own road map commitment to freeze West Bank
settlement building.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah)