Abbas Announces Referendum Recognizing Israel
RAMALLAH, West Bank _ Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday announced a July 26 referendum on a statehood plan that implicitly recognizes Israel, raising the stakes in a power struggle with the Hamas-led Palestinian government.
Hours before Abbas issued his decree, Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets and mortars at southern Israel, resuming attacks after a 16-month truce in response to the killing of 11 Palestinians, including 7 members of a single family, during Israeli shelling and air strikes Friday.
Abbas’ move, taken at a politically difficult moment of public outrage over Friday’s killings, marks the first time Palestinians are being asked to vote directly on establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The plan, drafted by prominent prisoners from Abbas’ Fatah party, Hamas and other factions, calls for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with a capital in East Jerusalem.
Hamas, which refuses to recognize or negotiate with Israel, has rejected the referendum, calling it an attempt to undermine the government.
Abbas advocates peace talks with the Israelis and is using the referendum to outflank Hamas and bolster his position, banking on what polls have shown is strong public support for a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel. The Hamas charter calls for Israel’s destruction and the creation of a Palestinian state on land that includes Israel.
Announcing the referendum, Abbas argued that adoption of the two-state plan is essential to end the international boycott of the Hamas-led government, which has deepened an economic crisis in the Palestinian areas. Foreign donors and Israel have cut off aid and tax transfers to the Palestinian Authority, demanding that the government recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous agreements with the Israelis.
“I am convinced that the moment we agree on the document, the siege will end,” Abbas said, promising that endorsement of the statehood plan by Hamas at any time before the referendum would make the vote unnecessary. “The faster we move, the sooner we will save our people from this tragedy it is living through,” he said.
Abbas’ decree sets July 26 as the referendum date and says that Palestinians will be asked to vote yes or no on the question: “Do you agree with the national conciliation document _ the prisoners’ document?”
Along with its call for a Palestinian state in boundaries that existed before the 1967 Middle East war, the document endorses the “right of return” of Palestinian refugees to their former lands now in Israel and refers to United Nations and Arab summit resolutions that offer recognition of Israel in return for its withdrawal from occupied land. The plan asserts that Abbas should conduct negotiations with the Israelis.
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, said he would meet Abbas in Gaza “to explain to him the dangers of the referendum, which could cause historical divisions among the Palestinian people.”
Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas legislator, urged Palestinians to boycott the vote, calling it a “declaration of a coup against the government.”
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in an interview published Friday in the British newspaper The Independent, dismissed the call for the referendum as meaningless, saying the plan cannot be a basis for negotiation. Israel has ruled out a full withdrawal to the 1967 boundaries and the return of any Palestinian refugees to its territory.
Prospects for talks were further dimmed by the resumption of attacks by Hamas a day after Israel’s deadly strikes in the Gaza Strip.
During an Israeli artillery barrage to suppress militant rocket fire Friday, an explosion apparently caused by an errant shell tore through a crowded beach, killing seven members of the Ghalia family.
They were identified as Issa Ghalia, 49; his wife, Raisa, 35, and their children Alia, 17; Ilham, 15; Sabreen, 4; Hanadi, 2, and 1-year-old Haitham. A 10-year-old daughter, Huda, who was in the water, survived the attack. At least 20 other people were injured, and one died of his wounds Saturday, Palestinians said.
The armed wing of Hamas said in a statement Saturday that it had responded by firing rockets and mortar rounds at targets in southern Israel, warning that the group would “respond to every crime perpetrated by the occupation.” The Israeli army said six rockets and 10 mortars had landed in Israel, causing no casualties.
Hamas militants warned Friday that they would strike in Israeli cities, raising the prospect of a renewed wave of suicide bombings that were suspended by the group since a truce was declared in February 2005.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz expressed “deep regret” over the civilian deaths in Gaza, saying that an investigation was under way.
However, Brig. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, the commander of the Israeli army’s Gaza division, said that the area of the beach in the northern Gaza Strip, which was filled with Palestinians on their day off, was known to be unsafe.
“The Palestinians know that this is a war zone,” Kochavi said in remarks broadcast on Israel’s Channel 10 television. “With all due regret, a Palestinian family has no business being in an area which for months has been known as a battle zone.”
___
(c) 2006, Chicago Tribune.
Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
_____
ARCHIVE PHOTOS on KRT Direct (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): Mahmoud Abbas
NEWSCOM PHOTOS can be viewed at http://www.newscom.com/nc/visuals.html (Username: fpnews and Password: viewnc05 allow editors to view photos.) To purchase photos or to get your own NewsCom username and password, U.S. and Canadian newspapers, please call Tribune Media (800) 637-4082 or (312) 222-2448 or email to tmssales@tribune.com. Others contact NewsCom at (202) 383-6070 or email support@newscom.com. Use search terms: “Mahmoud Abbas”
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.