UPDATE - After 22 yrs, Palestine Nat'l Council to meet in April

UPDATES WITH HAMAS REACTION

By Jad al-Nabhan and Mohammed Majid

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)’s Executive Committee on Wednesday announced plans to hold a meeting of the Palestinian National Council after a 22-year hiatus.

Notably, the meeting -- slated for April 30 -- will see the election of new Executive Committee members, according to Palestine’s official Wafa news agency.

A legislative body that theoretically represents Palestinians at home and in the diaspora, the National Council last convened in 1996.

Gaza-based resistance faction Hamas, however, which functions outside the scope of the PLO, criticized the move.

“Convening a meeting of the National Council in the absence of any national consensus weakens the council’s efficacy and contributes to the monopolization of Palestinian decision-making,” Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanoua said.

“In its current form, the National Council contributes nothing to the Palestinian political scene,” al-Qanoua asserted.

He added: “The American project -- which is aimed at aborting the Palestinian cause -- requires us to unify and consolidate our national institutions, not convene councils in the absence of a national consensus.”

Originally founded in 1948, the National Council includes representatives from all major Palestinian political movements except Hamas and Islamic Jihad.