In a move that Hamas officials called "immoral", the outgoing Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) members passed a series of last-minute laws that strengthen the powers of the chairman and makes it possible to revoke laws and even dissolve the new PLC, which will convene for the first time on Saturday.

"We are calling this a white coup d'etat," Dr. Mahmoud Ramahi, a newly-elected Hamas PLC member from Ramallah, told The Jerusalem Post. "In Algeria they did a black coup d'etat when they used the military to overturn the results of the elections. In this law they gave Mahmoud Abbas the ability to dissolve the parliament through the judges he appoints."

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Hamas won 74 out of 132 seats in the recent PLC elections. Ramahi said he received on Sunday his certificate confirming that he is now officially a PLC member. However, during the last PLC session, the members, most of whom are from the defeated Fatah party, passed one law creating a constitutional court and another law giving the Palestinian chairman the right to appoint its nine judges without the approval of the PLC.

The result is that, if the Hamas-dominated PLC passes a law unacceptable to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the issue will be brought to a constitutional court to decide.

Hamas PLC members fear that the court will automatically rule in favor of the chairman. "Today's law means [Abbas] can appoint nine Fatah judges and, in the first disagreement between us [Hamas] and Mahmoud Abbas, they can decide not to pass the law and instead to dissolve the parliament," said Ramahi, a doctor of anesthesiologist, who graduated from the University of Rome.