Israel to avoid arresting Hamas candidates during PLC elections [View All]

Israel will avoid arresting Hamas candidates during the Palestinian Legislative Council elections, unless they are suspected of terror involvement, a senior government official in Jerusalem said Tuesday.

He said that Israel will also enable the elections to take place in East Jerusalem, in accordance with the Oslo Accords, but will not "make an effort" to assist the election process as it has done before.

The PLC elections are scheduled to take place January 25, 2006. "For us it would be just a regular weekday, and we will not take into consideration the fact that this is an election day," the official added. "There won't be a regime of free movement in the entire area (in the West Bank), as was the case in the previous elections."

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon demands that the Hamas disarm before the elections and that it strike out the clauses in the Hamas treaty calling for the extermination of Israel. On Tuesday Sharon told EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana that "after the elections it would be harder to disarm Hamas."

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