April 15, 2021
RAMALLAH, West Bank In the late hours of April 12, Israeli special forces arrested Najeh Assi, a candidate for the Hamas movement in the upcoming Palestinian legislative elections and the movement’s representative in Ramallah and al-Bireh governorate, after raiding his home in the city of al-Bireh near Ramallah in the central West Bank.
Assi’s arrest came less than a week after Hassan al-Wardian, another Hamas candidate, was arrested April 6 at dawn. after Israeli forces raided his house in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Wardian, 57, was the first candidate on the “Jerusalem is Our Goal” list to be arrested following the list’s official registration with the Palestinian Central Election Commission on March 29. Wardian is No. 19 on Hamas’ list.
Palestinian Election Officials Approve 36 Candidate Lists The Media Line Staff 04/05/2021
Palestinian election officials approved 36 candidate lists to run in legislative elections scheduled for May 22. The approval of all 36 lists submitted to the Palestinian Central Election Commission was announced on Sunday. The names appearing on the lists are set to be published on Tuesday. The Fatah Party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will be challenged by several splinter groups, including the Freedom list of Nasser al-Qudwa, a former Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, and the nephew of the late Yasir Arafat. The Freedom list is supported by Abbas rival Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences plus 40 years in an Israeli prison for his involvement in several attacks and murders executed in Israel during the second Intifada.
Pope Francis calls for an end of violence in Syria, Yemen and Libya in his Easter Sunday address and condemns as “scandalous” the continued armed conflicts around the world.
“May Christ our peace finally bring an end to the clash of arms in beloved and war-torn Syria, where millions of people are presently living in inhumane conditions; in Yemen, whose situation has met with a deafening and scandalous silence; and in Libya, where at last there is hope,” the pope says at St. Peter’s Basilica.
Pope Francis delivers the Angelus noon prayer in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, February 28, 2021. (Gregorio Borgia/AP)
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Palestinian election officials announce that 36 candidate lists have been approved to run in legislative elections set for next month, the first Palestinian polls in 15 years.
The vote, which precedes a presidential election called for July 31, is part of an effort by the dominant Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas to boost international support for Palestinian governance.
Groups had until Wednesday to submit their lists of candidates to run in the May 22 legislative polls.
Individual names on each list are due to be published Tuesday, but the Palestinian electoral commission announces on its website that it has approved all 36 applications.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement is facing challenges from dissident factions including the Freedom list, led by a nephew of the late Palestinian icon Yasser Arafat, Nasser al-Kidwa. Freedom has been endorsed by Marwan Barghouti, a popular leader who is held in Israeli prison for terroris
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Former Fatah official Nasser al-Kidwa, center left, and Marwan Barghouti s wife, Fadwa, center right, leave the Palestinian Central Election Commission office after registering their joint list for the upcoming parliamentary election in May, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Wednesday, March 31, 2021. (AP/Nasser Nasser)
When Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a formal decree calling for the first Palestinian elections in 15 years, most observers dismissed it as a ploy by an unpopular leadership struggling to remain legitimate.
The Palestinian leadership had promised elections numerous times since the last vote had been held in 2006. That election, which led to a victory for terrorist group Hamas over Abbas’s Fatah movement, was the death knell for Palestinian democracy.