The speaker described the political tension between Hamas and Fatah and the recent
discussion about holding a referendum. The paper that the Palestinians should vote on
was formulated by prisoners of all political fractions held in Israeli jails, including
Hamas. Nonetheless, Hamas refused this document and it refused the idea of holding
a referendum. Hamas says that accepting the document would mean abandoning its
principles. It also says a referendum is not necessary because Palestinian voters chose
its political program in legislative elections just over four months ago.
The speaker defined the referendum in terms of its legality according to the
Palestinian Basic Law and the constitution. Moreover, he highlighted the situations
where we can resort to referendum and who is entitled to call for a referendum and the
issues that should be taken into consideration in the referendum procedures. At the
end, and as a sum up, the spokes man stated that there is no clear and direct resolution
regarding referendum in the Palestinian Basic Law nevertheless article 27 of the
Palestinian Basic Law refer indirectly to the referendum as one of the citizens'
political participation rights. Even though the referendum would be nonbinding, but it
could give the political fractions a way out of the crisis.
A survey released by Birzeit University showed that 77% of the Palestinians would
vote in favor of the proposed document.
A number of interested people and representatives from societies attended the
encounter. The total Nr. was 51 participants.
