MIDEAST: Hamas's Haniyeh says his group will look carefuly into Abbas's call for referendum that could challenge Hamas

Record ID: 345071

  • Title: MIDEAST: Hamas's Haniyeh says his group will look carefuly into Abbas's call for referendum that could challenge Hamas
  • Date: 25th May 2006
  • Summary: (W4) DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA STRIP (MAY 25, 2006) (REUTERS) THOUSANDS OF FATAH SUPPORTERS DEMONSTRATING AGAINST NEW HAMAS SECURITY FORCE FATAH GUNMEN AT DEMONSTRATION GUNMAN FIRING IN THE AIR FATAH SUPPORTERS CHANTING AND MARCHING CLOSE OF GUNMAN MARCHING
  • Embargoed: 9th June 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACEKEAB6LVY24ANHZE0IP1F4ZN
  • Story Text: Palestinian Prime Minister and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Thursday (May 25) the idea of a referendum as presented by President Mahmoud Abbas would be studied by the governing Islamist group.
    Haniyeh made his first comment on the issue hours after Abbas vowed to call a referendum if the Hamas-led government refuses to back a proposal for a Palestinian state that implicitly recognises Israel.
    "We will study the idea of referendum in accordance to how much it corresponds to the law as well as its political ramifications," Haniyeh told reporters as he walked out of a Hamas rally in Gaza.
    A referendum would amount to a confidence vote that could bring to a head the growing power struggle between Abbas and the Islamist militant group, whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.
    The proposal was drawn up in an Israeli jail by senior prisoners from factions including Hamas and Fatah.
    If an agreement is not reached on the proposal, the referendum would be held in 40 days' time, Abbas said on the first day of a two-day 'national dialogue' designed to resolve differences between the factions.
    Shortly after Abbas laid down his ultimatum, rival Hamas and Fatah forces exchanged fire in Gaza. Twelve Palestinians were wounded in two separate gunfights that were the latest clashes in a week of fighting between the factions.
    In the Gaza town of Deir al-Balah thousands of Fatah supporters took to the streets in protest against the new security force formed in Gaza by Hamas last month.
    Since the deployment of the 3,000-strong Hamas militia, violent battles with with Palestinian security forces loyal to Fatah in Gaza were increasing.
    Hamas, which won elections in January to beat Abbas's Fatah group, has refused to bow to pressure from Western countries to soften its stand on Israel despite an aid boycott that has brought the Palestinian Authority to near collapse.
    Abbas gave leaders of Hamas and his own Fatah faction 10 days to accept a proposal agreeing to a peace settlement if Israel withdraws from all of the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem, occupied since the 1967 Middle East war.
    The proposal also calls for a unity government and an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with its capital in Jerusalem. Other aspects include the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.
    Fatah and several other Palestinian factions back the plan but Hamas has not signed up to it.
    Many elements of the plan are also still unlikely to be accepted by Israel, which has said it intends to maintain large settlement blocs on occupied West Bank land and annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognised internationally.
    In Jerusalem tens of thousands of Israelis flocked to the city to mark the 39th anniversary of what Israel calls its "reunification" of both parts of the city.
    The annual celebration, publicly known in Israel as 'Jerusalem Day', marks the capture and annexation of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and the unification of the city's two parts.
    Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, speaking at an annual state ceremony in Jerusalem, said Jerusalem will always remain united under Jewish sovereignty.
    "It (Jerusalem) will eternally be ours, our one and only," Olmert said at a ceremony attended by various Israeli dignitaries.
    "Jerusalem - Jewish at its birth, Jewish also during all the days we were exiled from it, and today more than ever - Jewish, whole and united," Olmert said hours after he returned from his visit to Washington.
    Earlier in the day thousands of Israelis marched in a traditional 'flags march', waving blue-and white flags and dancing through the streets of Jerusalem towards the Old City.
    The events throughout the day were heavily secured by scores of security forces which were deployed across the city.
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