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The Media Line Daily News Focus

1. ISRAELI CABINET TO FACILITATE PALESTINIAN ELECTION PROCESS… Israel’s cabinet approved a series of measures at its weekly session on Sunday that it says is designed to facilitate the upcoming Palestinian elections. Prime Minister Sharon said the election was important in creating leadership with which Israel can make progress in peace negotiations. One analyst for The Media Line called permission for Palestinian candidates to campaign inside of the capital city, Jerusalem, the most surprising gesture even though such campaigning is restricted to inside of private homes. The hanging of posters and distribution of campaign literature will be allowed. Last week Sharon reversed his long-standing opposition to allowing Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to vote, but restricted the process to casting ballots at post offices. Analysts for The Media Line suggest that allowing actual campaigning by Palestinians to take place in Jerusalem further blurs the line of Israeli sovereignty that Sharon has been careful not to cross. The Palestinians are demanding that Jerusalem be the capital of a future Palestinian state, a position Sharon rejects but other Israeli politicians accept.

2. ISRAEL BEGINS PRISONER RELEASE… Israel on Monday began the release of 159 Palestinian prisoners in fulfillment of a promise to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and as a goodwill gesture to the new Palestinian leadership. 113 of the prisoners have been held for security reasons, the remainder for illegally entering the country. Earlier this month ‘Azzam ‘Azzam, an Israeli Druze man, was released from an Egyptian prison where he was serving a sentence after being convicted of spying for Israel. Israel promised a release of Palestinian prisoners as part of that arrangement. Although Israeli leaders are calling today’s release a goodwill gesture, Palestinian leaders dismiss it as insufficient. They point out that more than 7,000 Palestinians are presently in Israeli jails and are demanding that all of them be released.

3. SELF-CRITICAL REPORT BY ARAB SCHOLARS NEARING PUBLICATION… The United States is denying assertions by the editor of a United Nations report on freedom and governance in Arab countries that it is preventing its publication. The survey was prepared by Arab scholars for distribution by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Each contributor focused on his or her own society, attempting to present a frank and comprehensive picture of its weaknesses. The UNDP itself refused to back the claim of editor Nadir Firghani. In a statement, the U.N. body said that the report is in its “final stages of preparation,” and that “no formal discussions on editorial content have taken place, [and] no government has asked for their suppression.” Nevertheless, Firghani says that the report’s contributors are considering publishing it independently under the authors’ names.

4. HUNDREDS OF PALESTINIANS SUPPORT ‘ABBAS CALL FOR END TO VIOLENCE IN PRINT AD… Almost 600 Palestinians signed a full-page newspaper ad in support of Mahmoud ‘Abbas’s call for an end to violence. The signatories included cabinet ministers, parliamentarians, officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and literary figures. Analysts for The Media Line explain that the text of the ad supports what appears to be a growing belief among Palestinians that the use of violence against civilians “reduce[s] the range of support for our cause and harm[s] the credibility of our struggle.” It also reiterates a popular restatement of the issues in its demand for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and a “fair solution” for Palestinian refugees.