Palestine’s vice president hit back at Israel’s foreign minister on Saturday for criticizing the postponement of Palestinian elections, saying that in fact it was Israeli actions that forced the delay.
– Hussein al-Sheikh accused Israel’s Gideon Saar of posing as a defender of Palestinian democracy while attacking President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision.
– “Israel’s foreign minister now appears concerned about the future of democracy in Palestine after the legislative elections were postponed as a result of his crimes, measures, terror, and violence,” Al-Sheikh wrote on US social media platform X. “The one responsible for slaughtering our people every day now lectures us like a preacher.”
– His remarks came after Saar accused Abbas of corruption and misleading the international community about the postponement.
– Saar rejected Palestinian assertions that Israeli measures had created obstacles to holding the elections, calling them an attempt to evade “responsibility and accountability.”
– Abbas on Saturday issued a presidential decree setting Sept. 11, 2027, for presidential and legislative elections, replacing an earlier date this November.
– Nearly 2.97 million Palestinians are eligible to vote, including 1.59 million in the occupied West Bank, 1.24 million in the Gaza Strip, and 140,000 residents of occupied East Jerusalem.
– Palestinians last held legislative elections in 2006, when Hamas won a majority of seats.