Israel Issues Blacklist of Palestinian Lawmakers
Israel issued a blacklist Sunday of 12 Palestinian lawmakers barred from personally attending a session of the Palestinian parliament in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian officials said.

Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment but Israel had said earlier in the week that politicians ``involved in terror'' would not be permitted to attend the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) session Monday.

The meeting was expected to be the first time most of the 86 members of the legislative assembly would meet in person since a Palestinian uprising for independence began in September 2000 after negotiations for a final peace treaty deadlocked.

Over the past two years, lawmakers prevented from attending parliament sessions by Israeli military roadblocks and other restrictions have participated from their home towns in the West Bank and Gaza Strip through a television linkup.

Palestinian officials said the 12 lawmakers banned from attending Monday's session, all of whom are from the Gaza Strip, would take part in the meeting via a video link.

``We will not surrender to the Israeli dictates. The PLC will go ahead with the session the way we see fit,'' Nabil Amr, a parliamentarian and former cabinet minister, told Reuters.

The lawmakers were expected to vote on Yasser Arafat's June cabinet reshuffle at the parliament building after hearing a speech by the Palestinian president on ``national, political and security matters'' at his Ramallah headquarters.

``This is an illegal step from the Israeli government,'' said Dr. Kamal Al-Shurafi, a parliamentarian linked to Arafat's Fatah group who was blacklisted by Israel.

``The Israelis say we have a link to terror but we don't agree this is terror. This is our responsibility toward our people and we will continue to defend our people's rights.''

Israel Radio quoted officials at the army's civil administration office as saying they were doing their utmost to facilitate the attendance of most parliamentarians but that those linked to ``terror'' would be barred.
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