Hamas lawmakers to convene Palestinian Legislative Council, Fateh boycotts meeting

Date: 07 / 11 / 2007 Time: 13:05

A PLC meeting in June [Ma'anImages] Gaza – Ma'an –

Lawmakers from Hamas' "Change and Reform" bloc are planning to meet on Wednesday in what they assert will be the first legitimate meeting of the Palestinian Legislative Council since internecine fighting forced the legislative body to close in June.

Fateh and other Palestinian factions are boycotting the meeting.

Hamas says that each of the 35 Hamas PLC members currently detained by Israel have designated a surrogate to represent them at the meeting. This, Hamas claims, will allow them to muster the 71 members needed for a quorum.

Sources told Ma'an that five Hamas PLC members from the West Bank will join the meeting from a secret location, and not at the PLC building in Ramallah. Hamas-affiliated PLC member Khalid Tafish, who represents Bethlehem, said the Hamas lawmakers will not go to Ramallah for fear of being seized by Israeli forces en route.

Tafish also said that Fateh authorities will not allow the Hamas politicians into the PLC building in Ramallah.

Israeli soldiers detained Hamas PLC member Hatim Qafisheh in Hebron on Tuesday.

Hamas PLC bloc spokesperson Salah Al-Bardaweel said the lawmakers will use the telephone to link lawmakers in the West Bank and Gaza instead of videoconferencing equipment usually used to convene the PLC, because the Fateh-dominated Palestinian Authority has demanded that communications companies not allow Hamas to use their services.

Hamas won a majority in the PLC in elections in early 2006

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