Abbas 'to call referendum on recognising Israel'
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas told delegates from various factions today that efforts aimed at getting the Hamas government to implicitly recognise Israel have failed to produce agreement and he will now call a national referendum on the issue.
Khalda Jara, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian, cited Abbas as telling participants at the meeting, including representatives from Hamas that, “the dialogue has ended without results and we have no choice but to go ahead with a referendum”.
She said Abbas did not immediately set a date.
Hamas, which came to power in March after a landslide win in parliamentary elections, opposes a plebiscite and wants further rounds of talks to try and resolve the issue.
Abbas had set a deadline of midnight local time for an agreement to be reached, but told delegates about an hour before that time that further attempts were fruitless
Jara said that during the faction members’ meeting at Abbas’s Ramallah headquarters the president left the room to take a phone call from Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas, then returned after 70 minutes saying they had failed to reach agreement.
“The dialogue has not produced a national agreement and the president will announce his choice,” legislator Hanan Ashrawi, also at the meeting, told the AP.
Abbas wanted Hamas to accept a proposal, calling for a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Accepting it would require Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, to implicitly recognise the existence of the Jewish state.
Abbas has endorsed the plan as a way to end crushing sanctions against the Palestinians and allow him to resume peace talks with Israel.
The US, European Union and Israel have cut off cash transfers to the Palestinian government since Hamas won legislative elections earlier this year. The Western countries want Hamas to renounce violence and recognise Israel.
The plan was formulated by politically powerful Hamas and Fatah prisoners held in Israeli jails. But the group’s exiled leaders, who make final decisions on policy, have refused to accept the proposal.
