Abbas, Hamas lawmakers meet amid continuing differences
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas met with some two dozen Hamas lawmakers in Ramallah yesterday evening amid continuing differences over a national consensus program contained in a document drafted recently by the leaders of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
The Deputy Palestinian Prime Minister Nasser al Din al Shaeer described the meeting as "positive" and said it was held in "positive atmosphere." However, Fatah official Nabil Amr was visibly pessimistic. "This dialogue is going nowhere. There may be no way but to go ahead with the referendum," he said referring to the intention of Abbas to hold a referendum over the prisoners' document in case Fatah, Hamas, and other Palestinian factions failed to reach a common strategy on dealing with Israel.
A few hours before the meeting with Hamas leaders, Abbas reasserted his intention to hold a referendum, saying the Palestinian people were facing a real predicament which required action.
The document stipulates the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in return for an implicit recognition of Israel.
Speaking earlier during a televised interview marking the 42nd anniversary of the foundation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Abbas said he didn't believe that Palestinian factions needed more than ten days to reach a consensus.
"We don't want dialogue for the sake of dialogue, we are facing extremely difficult circumstances and our people expect results from us." Abbas denied that he was pessimistic with regard to the prospects of an inter-factional agreement on the contents of the Prisoners' document.
He praised the Speaker of Palestinian parliament Aziz Duweik by saying he displayed national responsibility when he proposed a broad national dialogue to overcome the present crisis facing the Palestinian people. Duweik is described by many observers as representing the more pragmatic wing of Hamas in comparison to the more hard-line leadership in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, sources close to Haniya criticized Abbas for not staying long enough in Gaza to hammer out an understanding with the Hamas-led government over a unified Palestinian position.
Ahmed Yousuf, a senior political advisor to the Palestinian prime minister, also complained that "people around Abbas" were not conveying to him the right information with regard to the government position on the document. "I think they don't tell him the truth, the whole truth. This is why the president and the prime minister ought to meet in order to avoid any misunderstanding." Meanwhile, reliable Islamist sources in the West Bank said that there are differences among Hamas senior leaders over the most appropriate approach the movement should adopt toward the Prisoners' Document.
The sources, which asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, pointed out that the bulk of Hamas' West Bank leadership was in favor of adopting the document with minor modifications.
The same sources intimated that the main opposition to the document came from "Hamas hard core" leadership in the Gaza Strip which he said refused to accept any implied recognition of Israel on the ground that such a recognition is incompatible with Sharia or Islamic Law.
The Prisoners' Document doesn't call explicitly for Palestinian recognition of Israel, but states that Palestinians would accept a state within the 1967 territories with East Jerusalem as its capital in return for peace with Israel.
Some Hamas leaders, including Khalid Mashaal, have on several occasions suggested that the adoption of the document by Hamas wouldn't constitute a radical departure for its present overall posture.