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Israel Must Set Conditions for Hamas in Palestinian Elections
(Al-Monitor) Yossi Beilin - Fatah and Hamas finally agreed on Dec. 10 to hold new elections - first for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), and then, three months later, for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority. With all due respect to internal Palestinian agreements, Israel must insist that no Palestinian individual or group that expects to achieve its goals through undemocratic means is allowed to participate in these elections, as stated in the Oslo interim agreement of September 1995. The fact that Hamas already participated in previous Palestinian elections cannot be used to justify repeating that terrible mistake. The 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement (Annex 2, Article 3.2: Nominations) states, "The nomination of any candidates, parties or coalitions will be refused, and such nomination or registration will be canceled, if such candidates, parties or coalitions: (1) commit or advocate racism, or (2) pursue the implementation of their aims by unlawful or non-democratic means." When I asked Prime Minister Sharon about this at the time, Sharon told me that he saw no difference between Hamas and Fatah. As far as he was concerned, they both want to destroy Israel. According to him, the only difference between the other parties and Hamas is that Hamas says what it plans to do, while the other parties engage in wordplay. The writer, a former Israeli government minister, was involved in initiating the Oslo process.