JERUSALEM – According to the Israeli Prime Minister's spokesman, Raanan Gissin, Israel will bar Palestinian Jerusalemites from exercising their democratic right to vote in the upcoming Palestinian Legislative elections on January 25, in occupied east Jerusalem.

Mr. Gissin conditioned the permission to hold elections in east Jerusalem only if the Palestinian National Authority exclude the Palestinian faction Hamas from competing in the elections. Palestinian Information Minister, Dr. Nabil Shaath, commented, "If there is no voting in Jerusalem, there will be no elections at all."

MIFTAH views these remarks and threats made by the Israeli's PM spokesman with grave concern, as an estimated 260,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites may be barred from exercising their democratic right. As an institution founded on the basis of promoting democratic rule and values, MIFTAH fervently insists that Palestinian Jerusalemites participate in the democratic process currently taking place in Palestine.

MIFTAH would like to stress that east Jerusalem's legal status remains "an occupied territory" according to the United Nations Security Council resolutions 242, 338 and 446, as well as General Assembly resolution 2254; and reminds members of the international community, specifically the Middle-East peace quartet, of Israel's obstruction in the recent presidential elections that took place earlier this year. During last January's round of elections, Jerusalemites were threatened with legal action if they voted, Israeli authorities arrested a number of residents without formal charges and closed down the Palestinian Central Elections Committee offices in city.

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, MIFTAH, is a non-governmental, non-partisan Jerusalem-based institution dedicated to fostering democracy and good governance within Palestinian society through promoting public accountability, transparency, the free flow of information and ideas and the challenging of stereotyping at home and abroad.