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Senior Catholic priest calls for online voting to elect new PLO leadership 

May 29, 2021 at 12:52 pm

Palestinian Catholic priest Manuel Musallam poses for a photo during an interview with Anadolu Agency, in Bir Zeit near Ramallah, West Bank on December 22, 2020 [Hisham K. K. Abu Shaqra / Anadolu Agency]

Father Manuel Musallam, head of the World Popular Organisation for Jerusalem Justice and Peace, called on Friday for the election of members of the Palestinian National Council to produce a new leadership for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and to choose a president for the Palestinian National Fund (PNF).

Musallam, in a Facebook post, also promoted the idea of an online voting process with the aim of: “Including all the Palestinian people at home and the diaspora abroad.”

He confirmed that the Gaza–Jericho project has come to an end to make place for the West Bank-Gaza project after the Sword of Jerusalem battle, noting: “The issue of Jerusalem is postponed but is put on the negotiating table.”

Father Musallam continued: “I think that the effects of the first Nakba in 1948 and the second Nakba of 1993 (Oslo) have been diluted by the traces of time so we must move to the third Nakba, the tragedies of which started to loom, including a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza without Jerusalem and without the right of return, because Israel will not give Jerusalem back to the Arabs and will not return the refugees to their homes unless it vanishes.”

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He added: “They laugh at us because they underestimate us. I fear that the authority (Palestinian Authority) is the one that laughs at us, and we are deeply concerned that they will accept this project as they had agreed to adopt the Oslo agreement in the hope of reaching a peaceful resolution to the issue.”

Musallam concluded:

They are telling us, people wait for negotiations! People wait for the Authority! But my advice to you is, O people of resistance do not wait, O people of Jerusalem do not wait, O people of refugees do not wait, O people of missiles do not wait. Revolt with anger my people to become the people of emancipation.