Step one on the road to peace...and war, and every other possibility
Quote of note:
During those elections, residents of east Jerusalem were allowed to vote at five polling stations in the region, but their ballots were officially classified as absentee ballots.
There's got to be some significance to officially classifying the ballots as absentee ballots, but I can't figure it out.
Anyway…
Israel, Palestinians Reach Election Plan
By RAVI NESSMAN
Associated Press Writer
1:36 AM PST, December 8, 2004
JERUSALEM — Israel and the Palestinians have agreed on the logistics of the upcoming election to replace Yasser Arafat, a senior Palestinian official said Wednesday, but he denied reports that the two sides had worked out a broader deal to end their decades-old conflict.
The Palestinians had demanded that Israel cease military operations and withdraw from Palestinian cities and towns to allow candidates to campaign for the Jan. 9 presidential elections to replace Arafat, who died last month.
The Palestinians also insisted that residents of east Jerusalem be allowed to vote, a demand that Israel has resisted. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after the 1967 Mideast war, to be their future capital.
The two sides have agreed to hold the elections using the same procedures that were in place for the last Palestinian elections, Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said.
