MIDDLE EAST: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has met election officials to prepare for a referendum on a proposal calling upon Palestinian factions to unite behind a plan for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Mr Abbas said yesterday he would submit the 18-point proposal to a vote in 40 days if it was not accepted by Hamas and Islamic Jihad by the midnight deadline. Other factions have agreed to the plan.
Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh rejects both the deadline and the text, which implies recognition of Israel within its 1948-49 border.
He argues that the Palestinian Basic Law makes no provision for referendums but Mr Abbas says he will issue a presidential decree authorising a plebiscite.
Former prime minister Ahmad Korei is set to travel to Damascus to discuss the plan with Syrian president Bashar Assad and senior Hamas and Jihad leaders based there.
The plan, drafted by senior Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, calls for the establishment of an "independent [ Palestinian] state with Jerusalem as its capital on all the land [ Israel] occupied in 1967" and recognition of the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
It requires Hamas and Islamic Jihad to join the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), recognised as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
They must also agree to a national unity government and accept the primacy of the president in negotiations.
The initiative, which urges all factions to form a united front to carry on the armed struggle in the occupied territories, was signed by Marwan Barghouti, secretary general of Fatah, Sheikh Abdel Kahliq al-Natsche, a leading figure from Hamas, and representatives of Islamic Jihad and the leftist Popular Front.
Surveys indicate that an overwhelming majority of Palestinians backs the plan.
Rival Hamas and Fatah factions have been sparring since Hamas won a majority of seats in January's parliamentary poll.
While Hamas supports the call for the formation of a national unity government and for continuing resistance to the Israeli occupation, the movement refuses to extend recognition to Israel until it has withdrawn from the West Bank and East Jerusalem and recognises Palestinian rights. Fatah, the former ruling party, is loath to share power with Hamas.
Hamas, which attained power though a democratic election, would find it difficult to reject or ignore a popular vote in favour of the proposition, while Fatah would have to agree to enter a national unity government with Hamas.
The proposal surprised Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and US president George W Bush, who met in Washington last month.
Although Mr Olmert dismisses the terms of the proposal and refuses to discuss it, the plan's adoption would put pressure on Israel and the US to resume talks with Mr Abbas, broken off when Ariel Sharon became prime minister in 2001.
Mr Bush is pressing Mr Olmert to negotiate with the Palestinians rather than carry out unilateral withdrawals from the West Bank.
He argues however, that until Mr Abbas disarms militants, under the terms of the moribund road map, there can be no Palestinian partner.
Israel and the US are using financial sanctions to oust the Hamas government which does not recognise the Jewish state.
As tension between president and prime minister mounted, Hamas gunmen stormed a Palestinian television station and a Palestinian militant was killed and two relatives were wounded by a bomb in the Gaza Strip.
Five Palestinians were killed on Sunday in gun battles between Fatah and Hamas activists as hundreds of Fatah fighters were deployed in Jenin in the West Bank to bolster Fatah-dominated security services in the ongoing contest for control.
