Palestinian polls postponed until Jerusalem voting guaranteed: Abbas
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RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories, April 30, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Friday that elections had been postponed until there was a guarantee voting can take place in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, further delaying polls in a society which last voted in 2006.
Addressing a meeting of Palestinian factions, Abbas said he had urged the international community to push Israel to allow campaigning and voting in east Jerusalem, an area annexed by the Jewish state in 1967 which Palestinians claim as their future capital.
But Abbas said the vote could not go ahead because Israel had provided no assurances regarding Jerusalem ahead of the legislative and presidential polls called for May 22 and July 31 respectively.
GAZA STRIP: An electronics engineer from Gaza, Loay Elbasyouni, had worked with the NASA team that made history this month by launching an experimental helicopter from the surface of Mars.
But he says an expedition to his hometown in the Gaza Strip, where posters celebrate his achievement, feels even farther away because of Israeli and Egyptian restrictions.
“When you deal with electrons and technology, you can calculate things and know their path,” he said from his home in Los Angeles. “When you deal with people and politics, you don’t know where things can go.”
The 42-year-old has himself made an astonishing journey from the hardscrabble town of Beit Hanoun near the heavily-guarded Israeli frontier to the US space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, where he worked as a contractor helping design the Ingenuity helicopter.
Gazan behind Mars drone says visiting home is no small step
by Fares Akram, The Associated Press
Posted Apr 29, 2021 1:13 pm EDT
Last Updated Apr 29, 2021 at 1:14 pm EDT
BAYT ?ANUN, Palestinian Territory Space engineer Loay Elbasyouni was part of the NASA team that made history this month by launching an experimental helicopter from the surface of Mars.
But he says an expedition to his hometown in the Gaza Strip, where posters celebrate his achievement, feels even farther away because of Israeli and Egyptian restrictions.
“When you deal with electrons and technology, you can calculate things and know their path,” he told The Associated Press in a video interview from his home in Los Angeles. “When you deal with people and politics, you don’t know where things can go.”
Palestinian leaders weigh delay of long-awaited vote
By AFP - Apr 29,2021 - Last updated at Apr 29,2021
Palestinian supporters of Mohammed Dahlan s ‘Future’Party rally against a possible delay of elections in Jerusalem on Wednesday (AFP photo)
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories Palestinian leaders were set to decide on Thursday whether to hold elections next month as scheduled or call a delay that could trigger further frustration in a divided society which last voted in 2006.
Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and blockaded Gaza Strip have voiced hope that the polls could help restore credibility and heal rifts.
Fateh, which controls the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority(PA), reached an agreement with its long-standing rival Hamas, the Islamists who control Gaza, to hold legislative polls on May 22 and a presidential vote on July 31.
BBC News
Published
image captionPalestinians are hoping elections will help mend years of bitter division
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas says he is postponing rare parliamentary elections amid a dispute over voting rights.
He said they could only happen if Israel allows Palestinians to vote in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem.
Israel has not made clear whether it will allow this without restrictions.
Parliamentary and presidential elections - the first since 2006 - were scheduled to take place in May and July.
It was not immediately clear whether the presidential vote would go ahead.
It comes as Mr Abbas is facing unprecedented challenges from political rivals which could weaken his party s chance of success.