GAZA, June 6 (Xinhua) - As the 10-day ultimatum given by
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has ended, differences among Palestinian
factions remained mounting.
On Monday night, Abbas' aides spoke about the failure of the
inter-Palestinian talks, known as the national dialogue. But the ruling Islamic
Resistance Movement (Hamas) and its sister group the Islamic jihad rejected the
remarks of failure and said "it didn't begin yet."
"The circulations about the national dialogue's failure aim at
easing carrying out the referendum," Khaled al-Batsh, senior Islamic Jihad
member in Gaza told reporters on Tuesday.
"The referendum draws the people to say their word over the
conflict with the enemy in a way that gives the enemy a right in Palestine," he
added.
President Abbas opened on May 25 a national dialogue by asking
Palestinian factions to accept and adopt within ten days the National Accordance
filed by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, or he would put the proposal to
a referendum within 40 days.
The prisoners' document calls for the establishment of an
independent Palestinian state on the territories that were occupied by Israel in
the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
The Document of National Accordance, also known as Prisoners'
Document, contradicts with both Hamas and Islamic Jihad's charters that call for
the destruction of Israel.
Hamas, which leads the government, and the Islamic Jihad, which
doesn't run on the political stage, have boycotted the following sessions of the
dialogue after Abbas' ultimatum.
"Neither we or Hamas took part in the dialogue, so how can it
ends," al-Batsh wondered. "The dialogue is being held in Ramallah between
members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization who magreed on that program
(the document) before the dialogue began."
Al-Batsh considered the dialogue as "internal" which involves
the factions that are represented within the PLO.
Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are the only big parties that stayed
away from joining the PLO which is dominated by Abbas-led Fatah movement.
Meanwhile, al-Batsh denounced Abbas for his intention to hold a
referendum on the Prisoners' Document and accused him of trying to get "a new
record for negotiations".
"It seems there are bids to confuse the public and make
themloose confidence with the resistance factions to rapidly reach
thereferendum," said al-Batsh.
"By the referendum, Abbas will get a new record for negotiations
to be submitted for East and West," he said, adding "I say he doesn't need more
records, they have lots of papers, and it seems he wants to embarrass the
factions."
Meanwhile, Bassam al-Salhi, the Secretary-General of the
People's Party said that the referendum was Abbas' own decision, and that it was
not subject during the national dialogue sessions.
"At the end of the matter, the referendum is a step that the
president decides, he might discuss it with the PLO executive committee, but
everyone has to know that the referendum was Abbas' own decision," al-Salhi told
the Voice of Palestine radio.
However, al-Salhi defended the referendum as the only democratic
option left. "Instead of appealing to guns and bullets, the people must appeal
by free democratic voting, this will not be easy, but it is the only democratic
choice so far."
But the Islamic Jihad will not participate in the referendum.
Moreover, it will ask its supporters to boycott at least or vote against the
Document of National Accordance, as senior Jihad member Khaled al-Batsh said.
Hamas is also expected to order its people not to vote in favor
of the Document.
While questioning the referendum, the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has called for giving more time to the factions.
"The talks entered a difficult way and I think we might have
reached the end, but I say we have to be given more time," KhaledaJarar, a
lawmaker represents the PFLP also told the Voice of Palestine radio.
"We must deepen efforts to come out with national agreements
acting as joint basis between various factions and programs," she added.
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