Paralysis in the Palestinian Parliament

Monday July 23, 2007 10:56 by Ghassan Bannoura & John Smith - IMEMC

Over the weekend, the Palestinian legislative council failed to convene once more and as such, did not vote on the legitimacy of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s government. On Sunday, in the central West Bank city of Ramallah, less than half the required MP's turned up for the session leading to failing it.

The Palestinian legislative council consists of 132 members from the West Bank and Gaza strip, and needs at least 67 members to be present in order to possess a legal quorum. Hamas won the majority of the PLC seats in the elections of 2006, after securing the election of 74 members. Since the elections, Israeli has kidnapped 45 Hamas legislators.

Rather than Hamas boycotting Sunday’s session, it was the Fatah movement and other parliamentary blocs loyal to Salam Fayyad’s government that refused to attend, arguing that Hamas had no legal right to call for the session to be held.

Fatah have called for fresh bureau elections in the PLC, a call rejected by Hamas who argue that, as this is an emergency session, such elections cannot legally be held.

For now, any session called for by Hamas is effectively boycotted by the Fatah bloc and any session called for by Fatah is boycotted by the Hamas bloc, leaving the Palestinian Parliament totally paralyzed.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said last week that he intends to issue decrees calling for both Presidential and Parliamentary elections this week in order to over come the deadlock the PLC is facing.

Hamas' acting parliamentary speaker, Ahmed Bahar, told Al Jazeera TV on Sunday that Abbas violated the Palestinian Basic Law, which functions as a constitution, stating that the law required Abbas to replace Fayyad within two weeks.

Hamas is not alone in questioning the legality of the current Fayyad-led government, with the authors of the Palestinian constitution suggesting that while President Abbas had the right to dismiss the previous government, he overstepped he legal remit by appointing a new government in the absence of parliamentary approval.

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