JERUSALEM - Israeli authorities on Wednesday ordered Palestinian electoral employees to cease all official work in east Jerusalem ahead of parliamentary polls, the central elections commission (CEC) said.
Israeli police officially informed the commission's lawyer, Ziad al-Bakri, that Palestinian election workers were not allowed to work anywhere within the city, which Israel annexed in 1967, or the rest of the country.
"This decision is very dangerous because it reflects Israel's position against the Palestinian election and that they don't want elections inside the city," Amar al-Dwik, the CEC executive director, told AFP.
Israel allowed Palestinian electoral workers to register voters in east Jerusalem ahead of presidential elections in January, he added.
Israeli police confirmed that they had handed over a warrant signed by the defence and interior ministries banning the Palestinians from any electoral activity in east Jerusalem.
"If they want to appeal, they can address the minister and tell him their reservations," the spokesman said of Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra.
Asked about the January agreement, he said, "that was then and this is now".
Earlier this month, Israeli police closed two offices in east Jerusalem responsible for registering Palestinian voters ahead of the first Palestinian parliamentary elections in nine years -- currently scheduled for July.
Israel bans all official Palestinian activity in the city, which the Palestinians hope to make the capital of a future, independent state of their own.
05/25/2005 16:20 GMT