Olmert stamps his authority

2006-01-15 16:17

Jerusalem - Ehud Olmert, set to be confirmed as Israel's acting premier until March's election, began asserting his authority on Sunday by allowing east Jerusalem to vote in the Palestinian election and putting the finishing touches to a new cabinet line-up.

With Prime Minister Ariel Sharon still in a coma 11 days after a massive brain haemorrhage, attorney general Menachem Mazuz was expected to declare that Olmert will retain the reins of power until Israel goes to the polls on March 28.

Israeli media reports said Mazuz will continue to classify Sharon as temporarily unfit for office rather than permanently incapacitated.

Doctors have said that the chances of Sharon exiting his coma now appear "miraculous", but Mazuz is understood to be reluctant to pronounce that Sharon is permanently incapacitated as such a declaration is irreversible.

Mazuz was scheduled to meet with Olmert and cabinet secretary Israel Maimon after the weekly cabinet meeting.

At the meeting, the second regular session presided over by Olmert, plans for the Arab residents of east Jerusalem to take part in a Palestinian general election on January 25 were unanimously approved.

Under the plan, residents of east Jerusalem will be able to vote in post offices as was the case in the last parliamentary elections a decade ago as well as in the 2005 election for president of the Palestinian Authority.

However, the cabinet barred the radical Hamas movement from campaigning in the east of the holy city, occupied and then annexed by Israel in 1967.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas had initially said that the whole election would be scrapped if Israel did not allow voting in Jerusalem.

Chief negotiator Saeb Erakat reacted by saying that "Israel has no right to forbid any candidate from campaigning in east Jerusalem".

Hamas reacted to the decision by vowing to ignore the prohibition.

However, three of its candidates were promptly arrested by the Israeli authorities as they attempted to campaign in Jerusalem's walled Old City.

The vote on east Jerusalem was approved by just seven ministers after four members of the right-wing Likud party pulled out of the governing coalition.

Saron

In the latest bulletin from Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital, doctors said that Sharon remained in a coma.

"The prime minister's state is unchanged and remained grave but stable. There is still no return of consciousness," said Yael Bossem Levy, spokesperson for the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem.

The prime minister's coma, which was induced artificially following his hospitalisation, has led to growing fears for the future of the peace process.

In the latest unrest, a Palestinian mother and her son were shot dead when the Israeli army opened fire during an operation in the Nablus area of the northern West Bank.

Violence also flared in the southern West Bank town of Hebron where hundreds of hardline settlers hurled eggs and stones at Israeli security forces for the second day running.

Security forces have deployed to prevent the settlers sacking Palestinian shops or committing other acts of vandalism in an enclave in the heart of the city ahead of the enforcement of eviction notices.

- AFP