PA official: Abbas to hold statehood referendum on July 31

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will hold a referendum on a statehood proposal that implicitly recognizes Israel on July 31, after Hamas rejected the plan, officials said on Thursday.

Abbas will issue a decree on Saturday formally announcing the referendum date, said the officials close to the PA chairman.

The referendum will refer to the prisoners' document, drafted by Palestinians jailed in Israel, which implicitly recognizes Israel by calling for a Palestinian state on all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day war.

After initially calling the referendum earlier this week following failed talks with the Hamas-led government, Abbas has offered a few more days to reconsider its position.


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That's probably the only way the Palestinians would vote to recognize Israel, by tacking it on to a statehood referendum. And that's the way it should be done -- confirming a modified version of the two states set up by the UN.

Now, the question is what it would take for Israel to reciprocate.