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(May 18) - Palestinian legislator Ahmed Batsh, watching the initial election returns last night with his wife Ilham, could not conceal his happiness at the downfall of Binyamin Netanyahu, but added that it was too early to predict how Barak's victory would impact on the Palestinians. "Netanyahu is reaping what he planted," said Batsh, a Fatah leader who was imprisoned from 1975-84 after being convicted of transporting weapons. "Israelis saw that he was an actor on television, always repeating to them: 'If the Palestinians give, they will get; if they don't give, they won't get.' He did not give his own people anything, so they did not give him anything back." "He was very arrogant," added Batsh in the living room of his home in Bir Naballa, between Jerusalem and Ramallah. "He looked upon our people as if they were flies, as if they were nothing." Asked whether the results would help the Palestinians, he said: "A lot depends on the coalition. Thirty-three seats [for One Israel] is not enough and now Shas is the king." Ilham, an Arabic teacher, said earlier that she had mixed feelings: "My hope is that something new will emerge. But maybe Netanyahu is better because he speaks more directly about the Palestinians." "I've seen some of my friends and people I know killed, just like Barak has," Batsh said. "I say there has been enough war and violence for both peoples." Batsh's son Ayman, 26, an official in the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Tourism who was jailed at the same time as his father during the intifada, said he hoped Barak would be elected and would revive the peace process. "It is time for both peoples to live in a good way, away from jail, away from suffering." His father seemed less than fully confident that things would get better for the Palestinians under a Barak government: "If he wins, I expect him to give us some small things, changing from Area C to B and from B to A, to allow some more workers [into Israel], and to release some prisoners. The idea will be to show a good face to the Europeans and the Americans. But in terms of the tough issues - Jerusalem, refugees, borders, and settlements, I don't see anything more than small changes." Earlier in the day, seven polling stations were open in east Jerusalem to receive about 3,800 Arabs with Israeli citizenship. At mid-afternoon, however, turnout was very low at the Abdullah Ibn Hussein Secondary School, near Route 1. One Israel activists at the site said that most Palestinians who vote do so during the early morning and late evening hours. This is so that they will not be easily identified by acquaintances who have no right to vote, including people who reject the idea of participating in an Israeli election. The organizer of the Labor presence at the east Jerusalem polling stations said he was hoping for a much higher turnout than in 1996, when just 3 percent of those eligible voted. "In a close election, every vote counts," he said. "I haven't had any problems from the Palestinian Authority, because they [also] want Netanyahu to lose and Barak to win," he added. Hatem Abdel-Qader, a Palestinian legislator from Jerusalem, said that the Palestinian leadership takes no position on participation in the Knesset elections, in contrast to voting in Jerusalem municipal elections, which they oppose. "All of those who are voting in this election already have Israeli passports, and we consider them to not be Palestinian," Abdel-Qader said. "What we are concerned about is before that, whether people take the passports or not." Bassam Tarawa, 23, joined the Labor supporters outside the polling station even though he cannot vote. A resident of Issawiya, Tarawa's house was demolished late last month for being built without a permit. "I applied for a license, but it's impossible to get one and everyone knows that. They destroyed my home for Netanyahu's election campaign, so I'm here supporting Barak. "Barak is not like Bibi, he is like Rabin - a man of peace," added Tarawa. Rabbi Daniel Shamir, a resident of the Old City's Moslem Quarter, was among a minority of Jewish voters assigned to the predominantly Arab station. "It worked out very well. There was very little pressure. I was alone in there," he said.
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