PALESTINIANS Campaign begins despite tensions

A voting dispute in East Jerusalem symbolizes a larger battle.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
JERUSALEM -- With banners and colorful balloons, candidates opened campaigning for the Palestinian parliament Tuesday despite uncertainty over whether the Jan. 25 election will take place as scheduled.
The campaign's first day provided a sampling of the tensions, from a dispute with Israel over allowing residents to vote in East Jerusalem to street chaos in the Gaza Strip, that have led some senior Palestinian leaders to urge postponement.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, already facing dissent within his Fatah movement and strong competition from the Islamic group Hamas, suggested a day earlier that the election could be delayed if Israel insisted on barring East Jerusalem residents from casting votes there.
On time
But leaders of Hamas, which is proving a tough challenger in its inaugural run for legislative seats, on Tuesday reiterated demands that the election take place on time. Hamas is eager to capitalize on momentum gained in earlier rounds of municipal elections, during which it captured a surprising number of local council positions.
Ismail Haniya, a Hamas spokesman who tops the group's national slate, said a delay would be counterproductive.
"Our brothers in Fatah offered the idea of postponing the elections for difference reasons, but Hamas has asserted that delay would just lead to a vacuum," Haniya told reporters in Gaza City. "Postponement won't be a solution to the problems."
In the contested eastern portion of Jerusalem, Israeli police detained the leader of an independent Palestinian party and prevented a second candidate from holding a separate campaign kickoff event.
Leftist detained
Mustafa Barghouti, a leftist who heads the Independent Palestine coalition, was detained outside the walled Old City. Israeli police said Barghouti, a resident of the West Bank, lacked a permit to enter Jerusalem. He was released a few hours later and ordered to stay out of Jerusalem for 30 days, said police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby.
The spokesman said police interrupted the second event, by Hanan Ashrawi of the Third Way party, because the gathering violated a ban on Palestinian political activity in Jerusalem under an interim peace agreement.
Later Tuesday, two other candidates and several activists were detained near the Old City. Abdul Hatem Qader, a Fatah candidate, said he and a fellow legislative candidate were beaten by police, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Israeli authorities, who said they detained 11 people throughout the day, denied the charge.
Larger battle
The voting dispute symbolizes the larger battle over East Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel after the 1967 Middle East War but is claimed by the Palestinians as the capital of a future state.
Israel has allowed voting in East Jerusalem by agreement with the Palestinians, but characterized that as an exception to the prohibition on political activity. During parliamentary elections in 1996 and in balloting for Palestinian Authority president a year ago, residents cast votes at a handful of local post offices.
Israeli officials threatened to forbid such an arrangement this time as long as Hamas is on the ballot. The Islamic group calls for Israel's destruction; its military wing has carried out dozens of suicide bombings and other attacks against Israel since the latest conflict broke out in 2000.
But Israeli officials have given mixed signals, saying they were considering possible alternatives that would allow East Jerusalem residents to cast ballots. Israel has sought to make clear its objection to participation by Hamas, but does not want to be blamed for delaying the elections.