Print

Mail

wiki links

Abbas extends referendum decree deadline

Palestinians hold up national flags and pictures of their prisoners in Israeli jails during a demonstration in support of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday. Yesterday Abbas gave Hamas another 48 hours to accept a document that implicitly recognizes Israel as well as a Palestinian state. PHOTO: AFP

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday extended a deadline for Hamas to accept a document that implicitly recognizes Israel, temporarily averting a showdown with the Islamic movement.

Abbas said he would give Hamas until tomorrow to agree to the plan or face a national referendum. Abbas had initially given Hamas until yesterday to respond to the ultimatum, but decided to give the group additional time after consulting with the powerful Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) powerful executive committee.

Abbas wants to hold the nonbinding vote to put pressure on the Hamas-led government to accept the plan, which calls for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, implying recognition of the Jewish state. Hamas, which is committed to Israel's destruction, has demanded changes to the proposal and said it will boycott the referendum.

During yesterday's meeting, the PLO Executive Committee endorsed the document and authorized Abbas to call his referendum, said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestinian official. He said Abbas will not accept any changes to the document.

"President Abbas has informed the PLO leadership that he is going to prepare for the referendum by the end of the week and he will announce this at a press conference before the weekend," Abed Rabbo said. "We are giving enough time, about three days, for our brothers in Hamas to reconsider their position."

The referendum would be held 40 days after the announcement. Abed Rabbo said negotiations with Hamas could continue until the day of the vote.

Hamas officials welcomed the offer to extend an ongoing "dialogue" over the document but said they remained opposed to any deadlines.

"We still have a chance to make this dialogue a success," said Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh at a Cabinet meeting in Gaza City. "Therefore we ask for more meetings and more dialogue and that we don't use the language of days and time as a threat."

Abbas has been involved in a power struggle with Hamas since the Islamists defeated Fatah in legislative elections in January.

In the latest violence, rocket propelled grenades were fired yesterday at a security compound in the Gaza Strip, slightly wounding three maintenance workers, officials said. The compound houses the headquarters of the Preventive Security agency, which is loyal to Abbas and has been at the center of the infighting.

Abbas' referendum plan calls on the Palestinian public to endorse a plan formulated by senior Fatah and Hamas prisoners held by Israel. But Hamas' exiled leadership, which has the final say in policy decisions, has refused to endorse the plan, officials say.

Abbas believes the plan provides a way to lift crushing economic sanctions against the Palestinians and to enable him to resume peace talks with Israel.

A vote could deeply embarrass Hamas. Polls show the prisoners' document would win broad approval. A survey released yesterday showed 77 percent of Palestinians support Abbas' call to hold a referendum on the proposal, and the same percentage would vote in favor of the proposal.

The survey of 1,200 Palestinians was conducted by Bir Zeit University in the West Bank and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
This story has been viewed 1381 times.