Egypt’s opposition Muslim Brotherhood movement on Thursday criticised Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas for his decision to hold a referendum on a proposal which calls for recognition of Israel.
”The effort to circumvent legitimate routes by imposing a document presented by certain detainees, and to consider it the sole document that everyone must respect, will only serve the Zionist enemy,” the group’s supreme guide Mohammed Mehdi Akef said in a statement.
The document, drawn up by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, proposes a final settlement with Israel of two states living side by side.
Abbas and the Hamas-led government have been locked in crisis since Abbas announced a July 26 referendum on the blueprint, pending a cross-party agreement.
”Threatening to hold a referendum under the shadow of the [Western aid] sanctions, and the constant Zionist aggression and security problems, will only deepen the fractures and fuel the fire between the different Palestinian factions,” Akef said.
”We therefore call for wisdom and continued dialogue without the imposition of prior points of view,” he added.
The document calls for a national-unity government, an end to attacks in Israel and the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel on land conquered by the Jewish state in 1967.
If accepted, the blueprint would undercut Hamas’s long-time platform of refusing to recognise Israel or disavow the use of violence, even within Israeli borders, as well as bounce it into a coalition government with Fatah.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition bloc in Egypt, does not recognise Israel.
Akef said the document abandoned ”certain principles” relating to the Palestinian cause.
He also called for a just ”distribution of responsibilities among the [Palestinian] presidency and the government”. — AFP
