WEST BANK: PLO CHAIRMAN YASSER ARAFAT AND LONE CHALLENGER SAMIHA KHALIL COMMENCE ELECTION CAMPAIGNS FOR NEW HEAD OF PALESTINIAN COUNCIL.

Record ID: 566062

  • Title: WEST BANK: PLO CHAIRMAN YASSER ARAFAT AND LONE CHALLENGER SAMIHA KHALIL COMMENCE ELECTION CAMPAIGNS FOR NEW HEAD OF PALESTINIAN COUNCIL.
  • Date: 2nd January 1996
  • Summary: GAZA/ NABLUS, WEST BANK (JANUARY 2, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) GAZA 1. GV PANS CROWD GATHERED AT RALLY 0.11 2. SV MEMBERS OF CROWD WITH FLAGS AND PICTURES OF PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANISATION (PLO) LEADER YASSER ARAFAT/ ARAFAT SHAKING HANDS WITH OFFICIAL (3 SHOTS) 0.27 3. SV ARAFAT ADDRESSING RALLY (ARABIC) 0.40 4. GV/VARIOUS VIEWS CROWD AND ARAFAT ADDRESSING RALLY (4 SHOTS) 1.04 NABLUS, WEST BANK 5. CU CANDIDATE SAMIHA KHALIL ELECTION POSTER 1.07 6. GV ARAFAT CHALLENGER SAMIHA KHALIL AT ELECTION RALLY 1.11 7. SV KHALIL ADDRESSING RALLY (ARABIC) (3 SHOTS) 1.37 8. GV PANS AUDIENCE LISTENING 1.44 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 17th January 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GAZA/ NABLUS, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVAEMTJC5ICNFLQH0AJKYDM24P2B
  • Story Text: PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) leader Yasser Arafat and Samiha Khalil, his only rival for election as head of the Palestinian Council to run self-rule areas, kicked off their official campaigns on Tuesday (January 2) for the January 20 ballot.

    Arafat addressed some 2,000 supporters at a rally in Gaza's Jabalya refugee camp. The event also marked 31 years since the founding of his Fatah movement.

    At the other end of the self-rule areas, Khalil, a 72-year-old woman activist who opposes the Israeli-PLO self-rule deal, spoke to some 400 supporters in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

    Both promised strong leadership.

    "With your free will, we managed to turn this administrative council into a legislative council, a free and independent presidency which submits to no one but to the will of the Palestinian people," Arafat said.

    "I appeal to you to make sure that the right person is put at the right place," he said.

    Khalil said she would try to rectify what she saw as shortcomings of the self-rule accord.

    "I consider land as the key to true peace. I did not participate in negotiating the Oslo agreement, I do not believe in it and I do not agree with most of the points that came in it," said Khalil, referring to the peace deal negotiated in Norway in 1993.

    Earlier on Tuesday, election officials, under international pressure, gave official blessing to a three-week campaign by candidates for the elections after earlier saying they would only allow two weeks.

    Official campaigning will now run to January 18, the election body ruled, accepting that some candidates had already started seeking votes.


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