Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Ashtiyeh announced yesterday that his government is focusing on mobilizing international pressure on Israel to allow the Palestinian elections to take place in Jerusalem, while the secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Saeb Erekat, accused Israel and the administration of US President Donald Trump of destroying the two-state solution, Internationally supported to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
In detail, Ashtieh said, at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting in Ramallah, that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas received, last night, a report from the Central Elections Committee regarding the factions ’responses to the initiative to hold legislative elections, followed by presidential elections.
He added that most of the factions' responses came "promising", and that "the majority of the government's attention will focus on international pressure on Israel to allow the elections to take place, and the government will provide all the elections needed to ensure its success in terms of financing, logistical and technical issues."
On the other hand, Ashtiyeh welcomed the decision of the American Congress, issued last Friday, which "supports the two-state solution and denounces settlement and annexation, and supports the aspirations of the Palestinian people in an independent state."
He considered that the decision "represents a rejection of the current US administration's policies, and a condemnation of Israel's policy aimed at undermining the two-state solution."
And the Palestinian presidency announced, in a brief statement yesterday evening, that Abbas "received the head of the Central Elections Committee, Hanna Nasser, in the framework of the continuous meetings between them, to overcome all obstacles to holding general elections."
On October 7, Abbas commissioned Nasser to start preparing for the legislative elections, and then the presidency, and to agree on that with the factions.
The last Palestinian general elections were held in 2006, in which Hamas won a parliamentary majority, and a year earlier, Abbas won the presidential elections.
Yesterday, Nasser submitted a report to President Abbas, containing all factions ’responses regarding the general elections.
In the report, Nasser indicated that the factions agreed to hold legislative and presidential elections, according to the principles laid down by the president in his letter to the election commission dated November 4, confirming the readiness of the technical committee for the electoral process. The commission sent a copy of this report to all factions that handed their responses to the president on the general elections.
Thus, the committee will positively end all internal consultations related to the general elections with the factions, as the holding of the elections is decided by the president by decree fixing their date according to the law.
This comes at a time when Saeb Erekat yesterday accused Israel and the Trump administration of destroying the internationally backed two-state solution.
Erekat said, in a statement after receiving in the West Bank an American delegation of Hispanic origin, that the status of the peace process has been the result of the practices and decisions of the Trump administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “that are really aimed at destroying the principle of a two-state solution on the 1967 borders, and the references of the peace process, International law and international legitimacy ».
He specifically mentioned Trump's decision, at the end of 2017, to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and to try to legalize Israeli settlement, and to drop the refugee file by destroying the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
Erekat stressed that peace will be achieved "when Israel adheres to the foundations and pillars of international law and international legitimacy, which affirmed the necessity of ending the occupation that began in 1967, and embodying the independence of the State of Palestine with its capital in East Jerusalem." The Secretary of the Executive Committee of the PLO stressed that the Israeli government must be obligated not to obstruct the holding of Palestinian presidential and legislative elections in East Jerusalem.
On the other hand, the two largest parties in Israel agreed yesterday to fix the date of March 2 as the date for holding elections, if no agreement is reached at the last minute to share power, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is striving to remain on the political scene after a list of criminal charges is brought against him. Tomorrow, a period of 21 days, will expire, in which Parliament could nominate one of its members if he obtained the support of the majority to form a ruling coalition, which would lead to the dissolution of Parliament and the necessity of holding elections within 90 days.
If these elections are held, it will be the third nationwide in less than a year. Opinion polls, which were conducted recently, did not show any fundamental change in the opinions of voters than in two polls that did not produce decisive results in April and September.
The right-wing Likud party led by Netanyahu, and the centrist Blue and White party led by his rival President Benny Gantz did not win enough seats in parliament to achieve a governing majority during the previous two polls.