Islamic Jihad to boycott municipal election

The Islamic Jihad Movement has announced that it will not participate in the municipal election slated to be held in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip next October.

“The municipal elections, albeit important, are not the right door or the desired means to find a way out of the current Palestinian national dilemma that deepens day after day,” Islamic Jihad stated on Monday.

The Movement also considered the call for holding local elections “an attempt to evade the responsibilities to rebuild a Palestinian national project based on a new and comprehensive strategy for the management of the conflict with the enemy and the internal affairs.”

“In the current circumstances where there are still division and a killer blockade on the Gaza Strip as well as the occupation’s policies and crimes in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and its control of all aspects of life and the services provided by the municipalities do not make these elections the first priority to serve the people and meet their needs,” it added.