Palestine calls for international intervention by Israel to hold elections in Jerusalem
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the settlers' attempt to establish a new settlement outpost in the Jordan Valley.
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Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh announced yesterday that official letters will be sent to international parties requesting intervention with Israel in order to allow Palestinian elections to take place in East Jerusalem.
Shtayyeh said, upon presiding over the weekly meeting of his government in Ramallah, that the messages were addressed to the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and the Russian Federation.
He clarified that those parties were asked to "intervene to bind Israel to the signed agreements, including allowing Palestinians in the city of Jerusalem to participate in the Palestinian legislative elections."
He considered that "the insistence of all (Palestinian) forces on holding elections in Jerusalem will provide international pressure on Israel to force it to accept the participation of Palestinians in the city in the elections, just as they participated in the previous elections."
On the other hand, Shtayyeh welcomed the candidacy of 36 lists in the legislative elections scheduled for May 22, in the first Palestinian parliamentary elections since 2006.
Shtayyeh stressed that the elections will be "an important day in the national calendar, in which the Palestinian cause will gain new immunity, enabling us to face external challenges and overcome the consequences of internal division through partnership under the dome of Parliament."
On the other hand, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned yesterday, in the strongest terms, the settlers' efforts to establish a new settlement outpost in the Jordan Valley with the aim of linking settlements to each other and turning them into a large settlement city, calling for "urgent international action to stop settlement and ethnic cleansing there."
The ministry said in a press statement yesterday, reported by the Palestinian News Agency (Wafa), that "these practices come within the framework of Israel's escalation of its attacks and its open war on the Jordan Valley, in an attempt to empty it of Palestinian citizens."
The ministry condemned "the occupation's control of the Ain al-Hilweh spring in the northern Jordan Valley."
The ministry said that it "looks very dangerous to establish a new settlement outpost in the Jordan Valley, and considers it an integral part of Israel's plans aimed at making Palestinian life in it impossible and forcing Palestinian citizens to leave their lands."
Abbas is to Germany to "conduct tests" and meet Merkel
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas began a visit yesterday to Germany to conduct medical examinations and to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
A source in his office said, "President Abbas has left for Germany and will meet there, German Chancellor Merkel, and he will conduct regular medical examinations."
A Jordanian helicopter landed in the Muqata, the presidential headquarters in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, where it took the Palestinian president to Jordan, from where he moved to Germany without passing by land across the Israeli border.
The source confirmed that Abbas (86 years) will spend three days in Germany and return to the Palestinian territories on Thursday.
Ramallah - AFP
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