GAZA CITY, 29 March 2006 — The new Palestinian Cabinet of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was approved overwhelmingly yesterday by the Palestine Legislative Council (Parliament).
Of the 109 legislators present, 71 gave their vote of confidence for the new Cabinet, 36 voted against and two abstained. Ten of the newly elected members were absent and 13 in jail.
Members of Fatah, Independent Palestine and the Third Way voted against while the Alternative party abstained. The Abu Ali Mustafa party, which represents the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) voted for Haniyeh’s Cabinet.
Speaking before the vote, Haniyeh said he was not interested in perpetuating the cycle of violence with Israel. “We’re not calling for conflict or the continuation of the bloodbath in this region. We are a government that looks out for the interests of the Palestinian people,” the prime minister-designate said.
He said the new Cabinet would be sworn in by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today. Western countries have threatened to cut off aid to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority once a Hamas government takes over.
Marc Otte, the EU’s special envoy to the Middle East, said the EU would only work with a Palestinian government that “agrees to the platform of peace.” He spoke on the sidelines of the Arab Summit in Sudan.
The new Cabinet includes 20 Hamas members and five independents. Twelve ministers are from Gaza and 13 from the West Bank. One is a woman and one a Coptic Christian. Nine are engineers and the rest have university degrees in other fields. Fourteen have spent time in Israeli prisons.
In Gaza City, Hamas lawmakers shouted “Allah-o-Akbar” after Parliament approved the Cabinet lineup and congratulated Haniyeh. After the vote, Haniyeh went to the house of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas founder assassinated by Israel in 2004, to pray with other Hamas leaders.
The Gaza session was hooked up via video link to a simultaneous session in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where members of the incoming Cabinet lined up to receive congratulatory kisses from the lawmakers. An Israel travel ban between Gaza and the West Bank prevents the whole legislature from meeting in one place.
— Additional input from agencies
