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| By Associated Press March 26, 2005 |
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| Shake that booty, wave that flag. (AP) |
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More than 20,000 Hamas followers crowded into a soccer stadium in the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday, singing religious songs and paying homage to the radical Islamic group's slain leaders, as it kicked off its campaign for this summer's Palestinian parliamentary elections.
The Nablus rally -- the largest public gathering in the West Bank since the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in November -- capped a week of events throughout Palestinian towns and cities intended to rally support for Hamas ahead of the July parliamentary poll and May balloting for municipal councils in several West Bank cities.
The rally featured large pictures of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza a year ago, and other Hamas leaders killed by Israel during more than four years of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Dozens of young people marched through the packed stadium carrying giant Hamas and Palestinian flags -- underscoring Hamas' intention to play a central role in Palestinian politics -- as religious music blared in the background.
Propelled by discontent over widespread perception of corruption and mismanagement in Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' ruling Fatah faction, Hamas candidates won strong victories in municipal elections in Gaza earlier this year.
Opinion polls give Hamas a good chance of repeating the performance in the parliamentary vote, and it is doing its best to rally support.
"People are asking us if we have launched our election campaign by these rallies," Hamas leader Hassan Yousef told supporters at a smaller event in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "I say, yes, it is an election campaign. It is a campaign for our resistance project."
Since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence in September 2000, Hamas extremists have killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks. Hamas has called for Israel to be replaced by an Islamic state.
But the rally in Nablus lacked the telltale models of burning Israeli buses and other militant symbols that were staples of previous gatherings.
"We are a strong organization, very strong in Gaza, and we want to show we are also strong in the West Bank," said Nablus Hamas leader Mohammed Ghazal. "We are not only a military organization but also a political one."
Israel has demanded Abbas dismantle Hamas and other militant groups as a condition for moving forward with substantive political talks.
Abbas has balked, saying he prefers to co-opt the groups into the Palestinian political process.
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