Palestinian Presidential Candidate Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi detained for over two hours in East Jerusalem on the last day of the presidential campaign. Barghouthi visited East Jerusalem on the last day of the presidential campaign. He met with President Jimmy Cater at the Seven Arches Hotel in East Jerusalem. He told President Carter that he was going to the Old City to attend Friday prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque. President Carter indicated that if he got arrested he should let him know. He did not take this seriously, as he had a permit to enter Jerusalem up till 2 pm that afternoon. The permit, furthermore, does not specify places Dr. Barghouthi is not ‘allowed’ to visit. Read more about Barghouthi detained for over 2 hours in Jerusalem on last day of presidential campaign
Today the Israeli military declared the closure of the Erez border crossing with the Gaza Strip for 48 hours, blocking the movement of all Palestinians into and out of the Gaza Strip. The closure also prevented Palestinian Presidential candidate Mustafa Barghouthi from leaving Gaza to campaign in the West Bank until late this evening. Yesterday, in the Gaza Strip seven Palestinian civilians, five of them children, were killed by an Israeli tank shell in Beit Lahia. Areas in Khan Yunis, Beit Lahia and Rafah remain under Israeli military siege, making it impossible to carry out a presidential election campaign there. Last week a 17 year-old boy, Riziq Musleh, was shot by an Israeli sniper in Rafah while attempting to hang a campaign poster. Read more about Free and Fair Palestinian Elections not Possible Under Military Occupation
Presidential elections in occupied Palestine are just 4 days away, and the two leading contenders � Mahmoud Abbas and Mustafa Barghouthi � are worlds apart in what they bring to the Palestinian cause.� Haithem El-Zabri offers a comparative overview of their backgrounds and positions on the issues, and how the international community is responding.� Read more about Palestinian Elections: Charting the Palestinian Future
Israeli forces have killed 17 Palestinians since the start of the election campaign on December 25. Palestinian rights group PCHR is gravely concerned at the escalation of attacks by Israeli occupation forces throughout the occupied Palestinian territories and the impact of this on the preparations for holding the Palestinian presidential election on 9 January 2005. PCHR calls upon the international community to pressure Israel and its occupation forces to stop such attacks in order to create appropriate conditions to allow Palestinians to exercise their electoral right and freely choose a new president for the Palestinian National Authority. Read more about 17 Palestinians killed by Israeli army since start of Palestinian election campaign
“These are the first local elections I have ever participated in,” said Abu Marwan, 72. “I missed the other election in 1976.” He and a friend, Asad Qassem, 74, were sitting outside a grocery store, near the centre of Beit Fourik, a town of some 11,000 inhabitants near Nablus. The two of them were dressed in traditional garb, a lot of it on this cloudy wintry day, and watched the comings and goings at the small but busy intersection. The first phase of the Palestinian municipal elections started this December 23 in 26 municipalities in the West Bank, and Beit Fourik’s townsfolk were out in force. Read more about Voters flock to polling stations for the first phase of Palestine's municipal elections
On 28 December 2004, PCHR published a report evaluating the pre-election stage, including conclusions of the monitoring conducted by PCHR on the registration of voters in the last quarter of 2004. Among other findings, PCHR noted that, by the end of the extended voter registration period, the percentage of registered voters mounted to 71%, while it was 61.37% at the end of the original period of registration, 4 September to 13 October 2004, including occupied East Jerusalem. Read more about PCHR publishes report on Palestinian voter registration
The independent Palestinian presidential contestant, Mustafa al-Barghuthi, has said he can beat the front-runner, official Fatah candidate Mahmud Abbas, in the 9 January election. Speaking during an election rally in the town of Dura, 45km southwest of Jerusalem, on Friday, Al-Barghuthi said Palestinians shouldn’t trust “biased and tendentious polls”, an allusion to recent opinion surveys which gave Abbas a substantial lead over al-Barghuthi and other candidates. “The results of the municipal elections prove that all the opinion polls we had seen were false. So don’t trust these polls,” he said. “Instead I urge you to work with me to create a new leadership that will feel and identify with the pain of our people, not the pain of others.” Read more about Abbas' rival strikes confident note
Like most Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Muhammad Qaisiya, a 45-year-old taxi driver, is quite satisfied that a municipal election will finally take place in his small town of Dahiriya, some 17km south west of Hebron, on Thursday. The last local election in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories took place in 1976. Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) supporters won the mayoral election, prompting the Israeli occupation government to freeze the democratic process indefinitely and adopt a policy based on appointment rather than election. Read more about Palestinians prepare for local elections
The glory of Bethlehem, a city of historical and religious importance for those of the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths alike is vanishing. Today, the centuries-old link with Jerusalem is being undermined. A number of Israeli settlements have been built around Bethlehem. Additionally, movement restrictions for Palestinians have been tightened due to the security situation with the aim of protecting Israeli civilians from suicide attacks and other violence. Bethlehem’s self-sufficiency has also diminished with the loss of tourists and pilgrims due to the conflict and to movement restrictions. Read more about Costs of conflict: The changing face of Bethlehem
Following a two-day offensive by Israeli forces into the Khan Younis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, the main United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees has opened one of its schools to provide temporary accommodation to 600 families displaced by the fighting. UNRWA immediately served the families hot meals and water in addition to providing mattresses, blankets and mats. Meanwhile as Christmas approaches in Bethlehem, two UN bodies have published a report on the devastating impact that Israeli policies have had on the little hilltop town. Read more about UN school shelters 600 Gaza families displaced by Israeli offensive
