Palestinian presidential candidate Mustafa al-Barghuthi has accused Israel of disrupting the upcoming Palestinian election due on 9 January. Mustafa al-Barghuthi, a prominent independent candidate, at a press conference on Wednesday in Ramallah said Israel was not allowing candidates freedom of movement within the West Bank and between the West Bank and Gaza Strip. “The Israeli occupation authorities have been barring me from travelling to the Gaza Strip. How can we conduct an effective and orderly election campaign if one is unable to meet one’s supporters?” he said. Al-Jazeera’s Khalid Amayreh reports from the occupied West Bank. Read more about Israel censured over Palestinian elections 

For many following developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the death of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat gave rise to new hopes for peace in the Middle East. However, for many Palestinians, their feeling of optimism regarding the future is largely psychological since there is no practical justification for it. Most are convinced that Israel will seek to find any pretext to avoid a meaningful peace process that would lead to the termination of 37 years of military occupation. The vital question remains whether Israel is willing to pay the price for peace and withdraw. Read more about Palestinian expectations tempered by reality 

A former Palestinian official, who survived an assassination attempt earlier this year, has attacked the Palestinian Authority, charging it with widespread mismanagement. Nabil Amr, the former Palestinian information minister, warned that Palestinians have to choose either genuine democracy based on the rule of law or national demise. He said the Palestinian Authority (PA) suffered from “rampant misgovernance, lawlessness and a lack of accountability”. Amr returned this week to his home town of Dura, southwest of Hebron, after a lengthy recuperation in Germany, where he had his right leg amputated. He survived an attempt on his life in the West Bank town of Ramallah a few months ago. Read more about Former minister lashes out at PA 

A contender for the forthcoming Palestinian presidential election has withdrawn from the race, citing serious flaws undermining the legality and legitimacy of the vote. Talal Sidr, who was the first candidate to nominate himself as successor to the late Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, said on Sunday that voter registration will deprive hundreds of thousands of Palestinians of their right to vote. According to the Palestinian Authority (PA) election committee, up to 72% of eligible voters have registered for the 9 January elections. “The right thing to do is to allow every Palestinian man and woman bearing an identity card to take part,” said Sidr during a press conference in Hebron. Read more about Palestine poll contender withdraws 

Israeli forces have shot and seriously wounded a four-year-old Palestinian child in Rafah, in southern Gaza, witnesses and medical sources said. Palestinian medical sources listed Shayma Hasan Abu Shammala in critical condition after she was hit by several bullets fired by an Israeli soldier manning a military tower near the Egyptian-Gaza borders on Sunday. Muawiya Hasanayn, head of the emergency department at the Palestinian health ministry, said the child was transferred to the European Hospital in Gaza due to the gravity of her condition. Witnesses said the child was playing in the backyard of her home when the soldier opened fire on her. Read more about Israelis shoot 4-year-old child in Gaza 

After days of internal haggling, Fatah has decided unanimously to nominate Mahmud Abbas as its candidate for the forthcoming Palestinian Authority presidential election scheduled for 9 January. The nomination is expected to be approved by Fatah’s revolutionary council and other relevant bodies later this week. It is unclear, though, if the nomination of Abbas, also known as Abu Mazin, was coordinated with Marwan al-Barghuthi, the less experienced but more popular Fatah’s secretary-general who is serving five consecutive life imprisonment terms in Israel for masterminding the Palestinian intifada against the Israeli occupation. Read more about Crowded field for Palestinian election 

As Palestinians mourn the death of one of its most famous resistance leaders, high level political discussions this week were deemed “positive and constructive” with regard to maintaining stability and Palestinian unity. With the death on Thursday of Yasir Arafat, the man who more or less controlled the panorama of Palestinian national struggle against Zionism for the past forty years, the PA and resistance organisations are making strenuous efforts to appear united in the face of mounting uncertainty over the post-Arafat era. Earlier this week discussions took place between the leaders of thirteen Palestinian factions and organisations. Read more about Palestinians embracing post-Arafat era 

Hamas has joined other Palestinian political factions in wishing the ailing Yasir Arafat a speedy recovery, but it is also readying for life after Arafat. The ailing Palestinian leader, though disliked by many Palestinians for a variety of reasons, still enjoys widespread respect among the wider public, including the powerful Islamist camp. Hamas realises, as, indeed, does the rest of the Palestinian political class, that the political diminution of Arafat and certainly his death would signal the end of an era and the beginning of a new one whose features and borders are difficult to determine now. Khalid Amayreh reports. Read more about Hamas prepares for post-Arafat era 

Palestinian Authority officials and opposition leaders have vowed to safeguard national unity in the wake of leader Yasir Arafat’s death. Seeking to cope with the absence of the man who was at the helm of the Palestinian national struggle for nearly 40 years,  leaders of the mainstream Fatah movement, which Arafat founded and led until his death, undertook not to allow his passing to impact the movement’s ability to keep up the struggle against Israeli occupation. Other Palestinians intellectuals are not so optimistic about the post-Arafat era. Some believe that the passing of Arafat will turn out to be “an earth-shaking event”. Read more about Palestinians to continue struggle