Jerusalem – Lame-duck Palestinian lawmakers held an eleventh-hour session Monday to give Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas new powers just days before the Islamist militant group Hamas takes control of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
The last-minute changes dismayed Hamas leaders, who denounced the session.
It also created political fissures as the incoming Islamist lawmakers try to enlist the defeated Fatah party in a coalition government.
“They are trying a white coup d’etat,” or bloodless coup, incoming Hamas lawmaker Abdel Aziz Dueik said before the session.
Meeting for the last time, the Fatah-dominated legislature voted to give Abbas unilateral power to appoint members of a new Palestinian constitutional court. That would give him the ability to name like-minded judges who could toss out laws passed by the legislative council.
Some Abbas allies downplayed the significance of the step, calling it mop-up work by the outgoing lawmakers that would have little impact because the Palestinian Authority currently has no constitution and the court has never met.
“These weren’t pre-emptive moves,” said Hanan Ashrawi, an independent lawmaker more aligned with Fatah than Hamas. “If we wanted to do that, we would have taken steps on other measures dealing with security or dissolving the parliament.”
Monday’s session was the culmination of weeks of behind-the-scenes scrambling by Abbas allies who were looking for ways to bolster the president’s power in the wake of the Hamas victory.
Monday’s action drove another wedge between the president’s long-dominant Fatah party and Hamas.
The new Hamas-led council is to be sworn in on Saturday.
