Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday pledged to push through with his plan for a referendum unless the factions resolve their differences, brushing aside protests from Hamas. Abbas, who was to host a meeting with representatives from the governing Hamas movement later in the day, said he was not prepared for the bickering between the Islamists and his own Fatah party to continue for much longer. The Palestinian Authority president dropped a political bombshell last Thursday at the start of two days of cross-party talks when he announced that he would call a referendum in 10 days to endorse a program drawn up by imprisoned faction leaders unless the factions settled their differences.The talks ended on Friday evening without any major breakthrough although there was an agreement to set up a “higher committee” to intensify efforts to reach common ground. The two factions have been involved in a series of deadly clashes in recent weeks that have left at least 10 people dead.
The document at the center of the possible referendum advocates a national unity government and Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem. A recent opinion poll found that 80 percent of the Palestinian public supported the document which was drawn up earlier this month by senior figures in all the factions, including Fatah and Hamas, who are currently serving time in Israeli prisons. Were Hamas to accept the document, it would amount to an implicit recognition of IsraelÂ’s right to exist.
Interior Minister Said Siam reflected a sense of anger within Hamas over Abbas’ tactics yesterday by warning against trying to impose any solution. “We have always supported any initiative to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people but not the imposition of other people’s opinions and a special agenda,” Siam told reporters.
Abbas however said he would act as he saw fit rather than bow to the will of the factions. “I speak in the name of all the Palestinian people and what’s important for me is the position of all the Palestinian people, not the parties,” he said on a tour through Ramallah which saw him visit victims of a recent Israeli Army raid in hospital. While Abbas is committed to negotiating a peace agreement with Israel, Hamas remains committed to the Jewish state’s destruction — a stance which has seen it boycotted and branded a terrorist organization by the West.