RAMALLAH, June 10 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement rebuked al-Qaida's number two leader Aymanal-Zawahiri on Saturday for calling on the Palestinians to reject a referendum on a proposal seeking Palestinian statehood.

    Al-Zawahiri made the appeal in a video tape aired on the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel on Friday.

    Fatah spokesman Ahmed Abdel Rahman defended the proposal, saying that it "boosts solidarity and unity among Palestinians and presents a program which helps drawing friends and supporters to the Palestinian people."

    "This man (al-Zawahiri) wears the clothes of Islam, so he has a number of audiences," Abdel Rahman said, urging Palestinians not to heed al-Zawhiri's call.

    Abbas is expected to issue a presidential decree on Saturday to call for a referendum on the statehood proposal which is seen as implicitly recognizing Israel if Palestinian factions fail to agree on it.

    The proposal espouses the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the Gaza Strip and West Bank with East Jerusalem as capital if Israel withdraws from land seized in the 1967 Middle East war.

    Hopes for Palestinian factions to reach an agreement over the proposal have dimmed as Hamas rejected it and described the possible referendum as illegal.

    Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, defeated Abbas' once dominant Fatah movement in the January legislative elections.

    The Islamic group, bent on Israel's destruct, took the reins of the Palestinian government in late March. Enditem