Abbas warns Hamas he may call border referendum
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas today said he would call a national referendum on the parameters of a future Palestinian state if no agreement was reached with Hamas within 10 days.
Abbas’ deadline to Hamas was a surprise ultimatum, intended to force the Islamic militant group to moderate its position.
It represents a great political gamble that could either could either help resolve the Palestinians’ internal deadlock or lead them into a deeper crisis.
Abbas said that if 10 days of dialogue between Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah movement do not lead to a joint political platform, he would then call a referendum within 40 days.
The referendum would ask Palestinians to either accept or reject a document that had been drafted earlier this month by Palestinian militants jailed in Israel.
The five-page document calls for a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War.
The draft was negotiated by leading prisoners from Hamas and Fatah. Hamas is pledged to Israel’s destruction and has rejected international demands that it recognise the Jewish state or renounce violence.
The group has appeared to soften its position since taking power in March, but has refused to explicitly give up its demands for an Islamic state in all of historic Palestine.
“If you don’t reach an agreement within 10 days, I’m going to present the document to a referendum in 40 days. Within 40 days I will ask the people,” Abbas told a large gathering at his headquarters in Ramallah.
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