Radical Islamist leader, Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi, indicated on Tuesday that he is considering running in the next Palestinian presidential election.
According to The Jerusalem Post, Tamimi said on Tuesday: “I don’t rule out running for president of the State of Palestine.” Tamimi, 60, claims that he has received “many requests” to run in the election.
According to sources in Hebron, he has gathered signatures from 4,000 Palestinians backing his candidacy.A former Palestinian Authority chief judge of Islamic Courts, Tamimi was forced into early retirement in 2010 following allegations of sexual harassment.
Previously affiliated with Hamas, last week Tamimi established a new Palestinian political group called Party of Freedom and Independence.
Shortly after the party’s founding, Tamimi announced that the political group was working toward filing war crime charges against Britain with the UN’s International Criminal Court over the 1917 Balfour Declaration that promised the Jews a homeland in Mandatory Palestine.
The Palestinian National Authority announced earlier this week that Tamimi had not received a license to establish a political party.
No date has yet been set for presidential elections in the Palestinian territories.
