Palestinian Candidates of Fateh list in east Jerusalem said on Friday they would boycott Jan. 25 parliamentary elections.
All of 15 candidates said they will withdraw their candidacies if Israel decided not to allow east Jerusalem residents to participate in the voting.
Hatim Abdul Qader, one of the candidates said that "Jerusalemites should be allowed to participate in the elections the same as the other Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza".
"We believe that if there will be no elections in Jerusalem then there should be no elections at all." Abdul-Qader added.
Israel has allowed east Jerusalem Arabs to participate in past Palestinian elections, in 1996, but it has threatened to ban voting this time if Hamas run in the coming elections.
Israeli online daily Haaretz reported that Israeli officials said the government may drop its opposition to allowing Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to vote in next month’s Palestinian elections.
In the past, small numbers of Jerusalem residents have been permitted to vote for the Presidential elections at post offices in the city, with the majority forced to travel to outlying neighborhoods to cast ballots.
