Palestine: PNC meeting in shambles

Barely a week before the Palestinian National Council (PNC) holds its first meeting in almost 20 years, doubts started to emerge regarding its holding as scheduled, some officials having claimed that it has been postponed while others have denied the claims.

Hamas Chief Khaled Meshaal said the meeting should be postponed until there is “a compromise” otherwise there will be “more division” but Walid al-Awad, a member of the PNC and senior executive in the Palestinian People’s Party (PPP) has stressed that “imposing political extortion” for the postponement “is unacceptable.”

The 740-member PNC serves as the legislative body of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO.) Hamas and Islamic Jihad are not member of PLO. This has prompted Meshaal to state that there should be “national unity” first before the PNC meeting because “there’s lack of authority” among Palestinians and “the cause of Palestine is bigger than Hamas and Fatah.”

Saleh Rafaat and Ahmed Majdalani, PNC members, claimed that PLO’s Executive committee had decided on Monday to postpone the meeting because the quorum might not be obtained and some media reported that PNC members sent a letter to the PNC speaker, requesting that the meeting be held before 2016.

Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior Fatah official, said so far, the meeting will be held as scheduled September 14-15, but he didn’t rule out the possibility of postponing it by the head of the council.