RAMALLAH, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian general elections have become uncertain as the Israeli government is still ignoring the official request of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to hold the elections in East Jerusalem, said Palestinian analysts.
However, actually both Palestinian rivals, Hamas, who rules the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, do not have a serious desire to hold the elections in the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian analysts said.
Abbas and his Fatah party still insist that the elections will not be held in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, without holding the elections in East Jerusalem.
Islamic Hamas movement, Fatah's main rival, which rules the Gaza Strip, said that President Abbas must issue as soon as possible a presidential decree to sets up a date for holding the elections, whether Israel permits holding it in East Jerusalem or not.
The Fatah-dominated PA has been based in areas of the West Bank since the Hamas-Fatah split in 2007.
The disagreement between the Abbas leadership and Hamas, and Israel's ignorance of the PA's official request, will make holding the elections in Palestine uncertain and elusive, according to the analysts.
Palestinian officials accused the Israeli government of trying to devote its full sovereignty on the city of Jerusalem by ignoring the PA's request that had been officially applied to Israel in November last year, asking to allow the Palestinians in East Jerusalem to join the elections.
The Palestinian analysts explained Abbas' insistence to hold the elections in East Jerusalem is a political challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump, who declared the city of Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel and moved his country's embassy to Jerusalem.
Abdul Majid Sweilem, a Ramallah-based political analyst, told Xinhua he does not think that the Israeli government, which is ruled by right-wing parties, would permit the PA to hold the general elections in East Jerusalem.
"The Palestinian leadership is demanded to stick to its position and reject making concessions on holding the elections in East Jerusalem, especially following the Israeli plans of Judaizing Jerusalem and after the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel," said Sweilem.
The Palestinian analysts said that it will be extremely hard for the PA to grab an Israeli permission to hold the elections in East Jerusalem. But this will "certainly boost the Palestinian position, which considers East Jerusalem the capital of the State of Palestine."
The first presidential and legislative elections, held in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, was in 1996. In 2005, presidential elections were held only to elect a new successor to late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat who died in France in November 2004. Abbas won the presidential elections.
In 2006, the legislative elections were held in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, where the Islamic Hamas movement, which joined the elections for the first time since it was found in 1987, won the elections and dominated the Legislative Council, the PA's parliament.
