Israel is not blocking or otherwise involving itself in the planned Palestinian election, Foreign Ministry political director Alon Bar told European ambassadors on Tuesday.
Ambassadors from the EU, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Ireland and elsewhere met with Bar to stress “the importance of democratic elections in the Palestinian Territories to strengthen political participation and accountability as well as democratic checks and balances,” according to a tweet published by several of their embassies.
“Israel will not prevent the election in the Palestinian Authority from happening,” Bar said.
The Palestinians have said they requested that Israel allow voting to take place in east Jerusalem but have yet to receive a response.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas is reportedly considering canceling the May 22 election if it cannot be held in Jerusalem.
PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh last week said they reject absentee voting, such as by means of an app, in principle.
Jerusalem, including majority-Arab neighborhoods, is part of sovereign Israel and is under Israeli law. Most Jerusalem Arabs are permanent residents and not Israeli citizens, though a path to citizenship for them exists.
In 2006, Israel allowed the PA to hold its legislative election in Jerusalem, with Arabs in the capital voting via post offices.
The Palestinian elections are an internal Palestinian matter, and Israel will not intervene, Bar told the European diplomats.
Hamas’s participation in the election was problematic and violates the Quartet’s conditions, he said.
The Quartet – the US, UN, EU and Russia – has set criteria in the past for Palestinian election candidates, saying they must abandon violence, recognize Israel and recognize agreements signed between the PLO and the Jewish state.
However, candidates with ties to terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, have run in past PA elections. The Biden administration reaffirmed its commitment to those conditions last week.
“Hamas is involved in the escalation in violence in Jerusalem and shooting rockets from Gaza at Israeli civilians,” Bar said.
He warned about “the possibility that Hamas will grow stronger in Judea and Samaria and its ramifications in the field on regional security and the promotion of civil projects in the Palestinian Authority.”
Empowering Hamas could be an obstacle to bringing Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, Bar said.
Israel is acting “carefully and responsibly” to prevent further deterioration of the security situation and expects Europe to behave in the same way, he said.
Last week, the US told the UN Security Council it was against allowing candidates to run in the Palestinian elections who do not recognize Israel or who support terrorist activity, such as members of Hamas or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
After the UNSC meeting, five EU countries released a statement calling on Israel “to facilitate the holding of elections across all of the Palestinian territories, including in East Jerusalem, in line with commitments made in the Oslo Accords, as well as to facilitate the participation of international observers across all of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”
Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.