September 9, 2002	Monday	Rajab 1, 1423

RAMALLAH, Sept 8: Israel has banned 14 Gaza Strip MPs from attending what the Palestinians had hoped would be the first full session of their parliament since the launch of the intifada two years ago, an official statement said.

“A majority of parliament members were granted an authorisation. Those who were found to be ineligible to attend the session, did not receive authorisations for security reasons,” said a statement issued by the office of the coordinator of Israeli activities in the Palestinian territories, Amos Gilad.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had given permission last week for the session to go ahead in this West Bank town Monday but had warned that MPs “involved in terrorism” would be barred.

Some MPs had insisted the session would only be held if all 86 MPs were allowed to attend.

But Ibrahim Abu al-Najar, who is parliament speaker Ahmed Qorei’s deputy for the Gaza Strip, told AFP Sunday that MPs would go ahead with the session to approve recent cabinet changes despite the Israeli ban on some of their colleagues.

“The session will be held tomorrow because it is an important one,” he said.

However Gazan MPs will not attend the session in person but via a video link in protest at the Israeli restrictions on their colleagues’ movements, said Zyad Abu Amr, who heads the parliament’s political committee.

“We will not go to Ramallah without all our colleagues from Gaza,” Abu Amr told AFP.

“By going, we would legitimize the Israeli decision,” he said, adding that he and the other 25 unaffected MPs resident in Gaza would make their contributions to the session by video conference.

Most of the MPs who were notified they would not be granted special authorisations to travel to Ramallah — including Minister of Supplies Abdelaziz Shahin — are close to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s mainstream Fatah movement.

Two of them are close to the Islamic movements, one to the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and two are independent.

Abu al-Najar mocked the Israeli blacklist which he said included one MP, Wajih Yaghi, who died of old age five months ago.

“This is evidence that Israel is blindly opposed to the session. It is absolute nonsense,” he said.

Another of the blacklisted MPs — the parliament’s secretary general, Rauhi Fattuh — will be unaffected by the Israeli travel ban as he is already in Ramallah on his way home from a trip to Jordan.

“We were informed that 14 MPs were banned from attending the meeting through the (Palestinian) ministry of civil affairs,” Fattuh told AFP.