by Saud Abu Ramadan

Islamic Hamas movement on Monday cancelled an urgent session of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), after its West Bank lawmakers were banned from reaching the PLC building in Ramallah.

Hamas, however, decided to hold the urgent session for both Gaza and West Bank lawmakers on Wednesday in defiance of the ban, which Hamas said aimed to block any attempt to achieve Palestinian reconciliation.

Hamas, which defeated Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party in the latest legislative elections in January 2006, has been ruling the Gaza Strip since it seized control of the enclave by force in June 2007. The West Bank remains under Abbas' control.

The Hamas bloc in the PLC labelled the ban of its lawmakers from entering the PLC headquarters as "a crime," adding that "such an action would enlarge the circle of feuds between Hamas and Fatah party that Abbas is chairing."

Hamas lawmaker based in the West Bank Yousef al-Shrafi told Xinhua that the security forces of Abbas in Ramallah barred the lawmakers from entering the PLC to attend the joint session between the West Bank and Gaza to discuss essential issues related to improving the Palestinian situation.

After Hamas militants in Gaza kidnapped the Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit in June 2006, Israel cracked down on Hamas in the West Bank and detained most of the movement's lawmakers. However, most of them were released after they received 36-month sentences in Israeli jails.

"After most of Hamas lawmakers in the West Bank were released from the Israeli jails, where the movement keeps a landslide majority in the council, we decided to hold an urgent joint session with our colleagues in Gaza with the presence of most of the lawmakers," said al-Shrafi.

Out of 132 seats in the PLC, Hamas has 73 seats, while Fatah holds 45 seats and the rest 14 seats for independent and small left-wing parties. After Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip, Fatah and other left-wing parties decided to boycott the PLC sessions until the feuds between the two movements are resolved.

There are nine Hamas lawmakers imprisoned in Israeli jails and two Fatah members, including senior Fatah leader Marwan al- Barghouti, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( PFLP) chief Ahmed Sa'adat.

Al-Shrafi said that after it became clear that the PLC has enough quorum, PLC speaker Aziz al-Dweik collected the signatures of one third of the PLC members to hold an urgent session soon.

"Al-Dweik sent the list of the lawmakers who want to hold an urgent session to President Abbas to ask for his permission for the session, but President Abbas hasn't given his answer yet. Therefore we decided to invite all the PLC blocs and parties for an urgent session," said al-Shrafi.

However, Fatah and other minor left-wing parties decided to boycott the session on Monday. Azzam al-Ahmad, head of the Fatah bloc in the parliament, said that holding the PLC session right now is illegal as the four-year constitutional term of the PLC has ended in January 2010.

The prevention of Hamas lawmakers from reaching the PLC building in Ramallah outraged the Hamas lawmakers in Gaza, which prompted the deputy speaker of the PLC Ahmad Bahar to announce the cancellation of the urgent PLC session.

The action would enlarge the circle of feuds and disputes between Fatah and Hamas who had already failed to agree on an Egyptian-drafted reconciliation pact that aimed at ending the division between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and called for holding general elections on June 28, 2010, analysts said.

"Today we decided to cancel the session of the parliament, and we decided to try to hold another joint session for both Gaza and West Bank lawmakers on Wednesday," Bahar told reporters in Gaza, who accused the PNA for seeking to block any attempt to achieve an inter-Palestinian reconciliation.

He accused the Palestinian security forces in Ramallah of opening fire at the West Bank lawmakers to prevent them from reaching the PLC building, adding that "Hamas will continue carrying its parliamentary activities in the council until new legislative elections are held."

Meanwhile, the PLC speaker al-Dweik told a news conference in front of the PLC building that the PNA "is responsible for obstructing the PLC sessions and the national reconciliation," adding "preventing the session shows that there are some figures who don't want national unity."