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President Arafat was due to ask parliament to officially approve his new reformed cabinet
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RAMALLAH,
West Bank, September 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The
Palestinian parliament met Monday, September 9, in Ramallah despite an
Israeli attempt to foil the session by denying 14 Gaza-based members of
the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) passes to travel to the West
Bank.
Israel
had banned 14 Gaza members of the 86 members of the PLC from attending
the session, including late MP Wajeeh Yajee, but the parliament still
met Monday to vote in Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s new
reformed cabinet, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The
other Gaza-based members refused to use their travel permits in protest
at the ban, which Palestinian officials said effectively hit 12
deputies, as one was dead and another had resigned.
The
Gaza deputies instead participated by video link-up, officials said, AFP
reported.
"We
will not go to Ramallah without all our colleagues from Gaza," Ziad
Abu-Amr, who heads the parliament's political committee, told AFP.
"By going, we would legitimize the Israeli decision," he said,
adding that he and the other 25 unaffected MPs resident in Gaza would
make their contributions to the session by video conference.
President
Arafat was due to ask the parliament to officially approve his new
cabinet, set up after his May speech in which he pledged to shake up his
administrative and security structures.
The
session was held in his Ramallah headquarters instead of the PLC
building because Arafat fears Israeli forces occupying the town could
raid his base if he leaves it, the Palestinian press said.
The
session was opened by parliamentary speaker Ahmed Qorei, who officially
closed the sixth term of the assembly and declared the opening of the
seventh, which will last until presidential and parliamentary elections
are held.
He
also resigned as speaker to allow new elections for the position, and
passed on the assembly's greetings to deputy Marwan Barghuti, who is on
trial in Israel on charges of heading the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an
armed resistance offshoot of President Arafat's Fatah movement.
The
ban on members' attendance sparked ire among the Palestinians, who said
it was further evidence of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
determination to undermine efforts to capitalize on the recent five
weeks of calm inside Israel.
Most
of the deputies who were notified they would not be granted special
authorizations to travel to Ramallah – including minister of supplies
Abdelaziz Shahin – are close to Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement.
Ibrahim
Abu al-Naja, Qorei's deputy for the Gaza Strip, mocked the Israeli
blacklist which he said included a parliament member who died of old age
five months ago, while the list of those granted a pass included a
deputy who resigned from parliament five years ago.
"This
is evidence that Israel is blindly opposed to the session. It is
absolute nonsense," he told AFP.
Another
banned member from Gaza was in Ramallah, en route back from a trip to
Jordan, officials said.
Hussam
Khader, a Nablus MP and noted critic of Arafat who heads the committee
on refugee affairs, said he would not attend Monday's meeting.
The
parliament "doesn't play a positive role in the lives of the
Palestinian people," he said.
A
little more than 40 from among 86 deputies attended the session, an AFP
reporter at the meeting said.
In
addition to a confidence vote for the new cabinet, sources close to
Qorei said the MPs would also discuss upcoming presidential and
parliamentary elections, the appointment of a prime minister and the
detention of Fatah West Bank leader and deputy Marwan Barghuti by
Israel.
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