RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian Authority decided Monday to hold its first-ever municipal elections and appealed for international help in setting a date for general elections, in an attempt to restore the legitimacy of Palestinian leaders.
The local elections will be held in stages, with the first voting to take place in the West Bank town of Jericho by the end of August, followed by elections in Gaza Strip municipalities, Local Affairs Minister Jamal Shobaki said.
The Cabinet decision did not link local elections to an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian towns, removing a major obstacle.
However, Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia reiterated Monday that legislative and presidential elections would only be held once Israeli soldiers have withdrawn from all Palestinian population centers.
Qureia said he would ask the so-called quartet of mediators — the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union — to come up with a date for general elections, apparently as a way of prodding Israel to withdraw troops and remove roadblocks. Qureia is to meet next week in Berlin with U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.
The push for new elections was an effort to counter Israel's claim that it has no Palestinian negotiating partner. With peace efforts stalled, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is pushing for a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, a plan that irked Palestinian officials, who watched the fate of their people being decided without their input.
The decision to hold municipal elections amid increasing lawlessness and corruption in Palestinian towns. During full Israeli military rule, municipal elections were held in the West Bank in 1976, but not in the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Authority took charge in the mid-1990s, it has appointed the local officials.
The last Palestinian elections for president and the legislature were held in 1996. New elections were supposed to have been held in 2001, but were postponed after the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
"We need general elections," Qureia said. "We cannot set a date because of the occupation. We will call on the Quartet to suggest or propose a new date so we can put an end to (people saying) there ... is no partner (for peace)."
Minister Qadoura Fares said the Cabinet called for local elections after many municipal officials threatened to resign amid increasing chaos and violence in their towns.
The Palestinian Authority has had trouble finding new leaders to run the West Bank city of Nablus after the mayor, Ghassan Shakaa, resigned in February to protest the unchecked mayhem in his city of 180,000.
"We found the only way to settle down these troubles is to hold municipal elections," Fares said.
Yasser Arafat has been reluctant to agree to holding local elections, for fear opposition groups, including the Islamic militant Hamas, would win. However, advisers have been pressing him to relent, saying dissatisfaction among ordinary Palestinians is becoming increasingly disruptive, according to officials close to the veteral Palestinian leader.
The plan to hold elections also gives Qureia something to present to Rice next week.
The Qureia-Rice meeting also was expected to focus on President Bush's statement last month that Israel would not be expected to give up all its West Bank settlements or take in Palestinian refugees under any final peace deal. Qureia has said he would ask Rice to help get the "road map" peace deal back on track.
"The road map should not be taken hostage by the Israeli mood and the Israeli plans, which are based on expropriating more Palestinian land and limiting the Palestinian national rights," he told reporters earlier this week.
Also Monday, Israeli troops using bulldozers demolished 13 Palestinian homes along a Gaza road, a day after Palestinian gunmen ambushed Jewish settlers there during an outdoor memorial service at the spot where an Israeli family was killed last week. About 75 Palestinians were left homeless, all members of the same clan.
"They left nothing for us," said Yousef Abu Hadaf, one of the home owners.
The Israeli military said the houses were torn down because they had served as cover for the gunmen.
No Israelis were injured in Sunday's attack, but automatic fire kept dozens of settlers, including terrified toddlers, pinned to the ground for 20 minutes. Many crouched behind cars during the battle, before racing to nearby armored buses.
Israeli soldiers killed at least one gunman and were searching the area for the body of the second gunman. The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the shooting.
Several dozen settlers had attended the roadside memorial for Tali Hatuel and her four daughters, ages 2 to 11, who were killed in an ambush last week.
Meanwhile, Palestinian vandals with axes and shovels desecrated or destroyed 32 graves in a Commonwealth military cemetery in Gaza City. Photographs of U.S. and British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners were stuck to some of the tombstones. "We will take revenge," was written on one tombstone.
The British consulate in Jerusalem said it was investigating the incident.
About 3,000 Commonwealth soldiers killed in World War I, including Muslims, Christians and Jews from 17 countries, are buried in the plot in Gaza City.
"Our religion as Muslims and our tradition as Palestinians forbid such acts," said Issam Jaradeh, a caretaker at the cemetery.
Reports of abuse in American-run prisons in Iraq have reverberated throughout the Arab world and have further intensified anti-Western sentiment.