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ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-CONFLICT-HAMAS
Hamas rejects Abbas plan to dissolve Palestinian parliament
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories, Dec 23, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Hamas on
Sunday denounced Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s plan to dissolve the
largely defunct Palestinian parliament that it controls, calling it a move to
“serve his partisan interests”.
Abbas said Saturday he intended to dissolve the Palestinian Legislative
Council after a court decision that ordered the move and elections to be held
within six months.
The ruling was made by the Palestinian Constitutional Court in Ramallah,
and Hamas said in a statement it rejected the decision by a court created by
Abbas “to legitimise his arbitrary decisions”.
“Abbas should have extended his hands to (Hamas leader Ismail) Haniya’s
invitation to hold a joint meeting, thereby ending the Palestinian division,”
the statement said.
“Rather, Abbas opted to ruin the Palestinian political system, maintain
his unilateralism, and dissolve the legal institutions of the Palestinian
people. All of this is just to serve his partisan interests.”
It called on Egypt, which has been seeking to reconcile Hamas and Abbas’s
Fatah, to block the measure.
Dissolving the parliament would allow Abbas to further pressure Hamas.
Though the parliament has not met since 2007, when Hamas seized control of
the Gaza Strip, Palestinian law allows for its speaker to act as interim
president should 83-year-old Abbas die in office.
Hamas won the last parliamentary elections in 2006 in a landslide,
resulting in an electoral dispute with Fatah.
The split between them persists and has defied several reconciliation
attempts. A range of issues have kept the two sides apart, including Hamas’s
refusal to disarm its military wing.
Abbas, whose Fatah is based in the occupied West Bank, has sought to
pressure Hamas in recent months by reducing salaries in the Gaza Strip, which
is under an Israeli blockade, among other moves.
Abbas’s term was meant to expire in 2009, but he has remained in office in
the absence of elections.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1438 hrs