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Hamas' new parliament member Mohammed Abu Teir speaks to Palestinian protestors outside Abbas headquarters, Saturday. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners February 19, 2006 |
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| Palestinian women, supporters of the Islamic group Hamas, attend the swearing-in session of the new Palestinian Parliament in Gaza City, Saturday Feb. 18, 2006. |
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Behind the clean-shaven men and fashionably dressed women from the former ruling Fatah Party, sat rows of men with traditional Muslim beards and women in long coats and headscarves, the vanguard of the new top party, Hamas.
As roll was called, the Islamists held up portraits of lawmakers sitting in Israeli jails.
A quick scan of the seats at the first session of the new Hamas-dominated parliament Saturday made it very clear that a new Palestinian regime was in charge.
"Now we see a major shift, an unprecedented shift, in Palestinian life," lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi said.
It was evident the session would be unorthodox even before it began.
Israel, angry at the victory of a group that calls for its destruction, refused to allow Hamas lawmakers to travel from Gaza to the Samarian city of Ramallah for the swearing-in ceremony. In response, about 30 lawmakers held a concurrent session in Gaza City linked to the Ramallah hall via videoconference.
About a dozen of the newly elected lawmakers are imprisoned in Israeli jails and one is sitting in a Palestinian prison. Another two lawmakers could not attend because they are fugitives in hiding from Israel.
Jamal Abu Rob, one of the fugitives from Fatah, asked the Palestinian Authority to get him permission to travel from the northern West Bank to Ramallah. He was told to apply at an Israeli military office, where his request was rejected for security reasons, he said.
"All the roads of the West Bank are full of Israeli checkpoints, and I can't go to Ramallah," he said before the session.
During the parliament session, family members of Hamas lawmakers in Israeli jails held framed portraits of the men. When each prisoner's name was called as attendance was taken, the person holding his portrait raised it in the air.
Khalida Jarrar, a lawmaker from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, propped a portrait of Ahmed Saadat on a chair next to her. Saadat, the head of the PFLP, is currently in a Palestinian jail under foreign supervision in the Samarian town of Jericho for ordering the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister.
In an interview from his cell, Saadat said he held court for many politicians in recent days, as Hamas officials visited to discuss forming a coalition with his three-member parliamentary faction and Fatah officials tried to persuade him not to join the government.
Saadat said that if he is not released, at least the Palestinians should provide him with video conferencing equipment so he can participate in future sessions from his cell.
Lawmakers from Fatah and several smaller parties, including the PFLP, packed the front rows of the parliament session. Ashrawi wore pants. Former Finance Minister Salam Fayyad wore a finely tailored suit and a bright blue tie.
The rows behind them were filled with Hamas officials with a different fashion sense.
Mohammed Abu Teir, a prominent Hamas legislator, had his trademark bushy beard dyed red with henna. Other men from his faction sported closer trimmed beards, though a very few had no facial hair at all. Hamas' female legislators were covered in scarves and bulky coats.
In Gaza, about 100 women from the Hamas Women's Union attended the satellite session there with their faces covered by veils.
The swearing-in was delayed temporarily when Salim Azzanon, the head of the Palestinian National Council - the PLO's main decision-making body - embarked on a rambling speech, complete with poems and a lengthy outline of proposals he hoped to see enacted by the legislature.
As his speech wound on, outgoing parliament speaker Rauhi Fattouh rose and asked him if he couldn't present his ideas at a later meeting. He eventually agreed, and led the oath of office.
AP contributed to this report.
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