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The Palestinian Central Council will convene today
The Palestinian Central Council will convene at 11:00 am today at the Presidential headquarters in Ramallah with the members who can attend; the total number of PCC members is 128. The Israeli government prevented the convening of the PCC meeting with full members. The PCC meeting will not take any decision because there will not be a quorum as expected but will hear a speech by President Arafat and another speech by PNC Speaker Salim Za'noun and a third speech by Dr. Shaath, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, focusing on the first draft of the Palestinian constitution. Shaath said the preliminary draft of the Palestinian constitution is ready. He added: We really wanted the PCC to bless this draft since there are some details that need to be concluded so that the complete draft can be presented for discussions and then the PCC will convene once again to ratify it. Shaath said that a major part of the broad guidelines of the first draft is taken from the Palestinian Basic Law and that about 100 items of the 120 items were adopted, including the public rights, freedoms, separation of authorities, the free economic system, justice, projection of freedoms. He said: several items will remain as is but there is more details for the items pertaining to the ruling system, the relation between the President and the PM and the government, and the relationship between the executive authority and the legislative authority and other vital and important issues in any state. Shaath said the draft would include several options regarding the borders of the state, the issue of the Palestinian refugees, stressing that these issues require a political decision. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Leadership affirmed yesterday that it clings to holding the PCC meeting to discuss the constitution draft and clings to holding the London Conference. Meanwhile, the EU said yesterday that the Israeli decision on banning Palestinians from attending the Conference on the Middle East next week in London obstructs the efforts exerted to end the bloodshed in the region. The EU current President, Greece, issued a statement calling on Israel to lift the ban because the Israeli decision reinforces hatred and extremism.
Published at Al Ayyam Newspaper on January 9, 2003.
Palestine Central Council (PCC):
Established in 1973 as consultative body to the PLO Executive Committee; became a consultative and legislative body at the 20th Palestinian National Council(PNC) in 1991; membership is now elected form among members of the PNC (present: 95 members); meets regularly every six months and plays the role of the PNC when PNC is not in session.
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