PNC meeting postponed until end of 2015

The head of the Palestinian National Council, Salim Zanoun, announced on Wednesday the postponement of the council’s first session in almost 20 years.

The PNC is the legislative body and highest authority of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the self-professed representative of Palestinian people.

The meeting was planned to take place on 14-15 September, after the resignation of PA president Mahmoud Abbas and nine senior members of the PLO Executive Committee in late August set the stage for electing a new chairman and members.

At the PNC offices in Ramallah, Zanoun said that a committee formed of senior officials would meet to arrange for the session to take place within three months.

The committee would be formed of members of the PLO Executive Committee and the secretary-generals of Palestinian political factions.

The session, Zanoun said, would “take time”. He also called for wider inclusivity to “give space to other Palestinian factions to participate in this large responsibility”.

The initial announcement of the PNC meeting was not fully endorsed, as hundreds of academic and independent individuals signed a petition demanding the meeting to be postponed.

Hamas calls for unity before meeting

Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who are not part of the PLO, strongly expressed their disapproval of the meeting, saying that unity between all political factions was necessary before any major political decisions could be undertaken.

Khalid Meshal, the Hamas politburo chief, had called for the postponement of the PNC meeting.

“Postpone the meeting of the National Congress until there’s a compromise for the meeting,” he said on Tuesday.

“The meeting should be about the laws and regulations we agreed on, otherwise this will lead to more division,” he added.

An official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Abbas was convinced to postpone the session by members of the Fatah Party central and PLO executive committees.

“The two leading Palestinian committees recommended President Abbas to give more time for the preparations to hold the PNC with other factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” the official said.

PLO official Jamil Shehadeh stressed on Monday that the PNC meeting would need to have all of the Palestinian factions involved.

“The PLO recommendation was made to make certain that there will be better preparations for holding a PNC session that will be attended by all participating factions,” Shehadeh said.

Abbas’s supporters said that the move came in order to introduce new blood in the Palestinian leadership, but critics argued that the 80-year-old Abbas is moving to empower his allies and marginalise opponents ahead of his retirement.