Jibril Rajoub
Jibril RajoubIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub lashed out at Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday night, after the Israeli leader cancelled a planned session of peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and said he would convene the inner diplomacy-security cabinet to discuss whether or not to continue contacts with the PA.

Both announcements came in the wake of an announced reconciliation deal between PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party and the Hamas terrorist group which controls Gaza.

Rajoub, however, told the Hebrew-language Walla! news website that the Hamas-Fatah deal had nothing to do with the peace talks with Israel.

“The reconciliation is an internal Palestinian national issue, and no one who believes in the two-state solution has any right to deny it," he charged.

Rajoub further claimed that "the basis for the [Hamas-Fatah] reconciliation is the principle of establishing a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, as decided on May 4, 2011, in the Cairo Agreement signed by all factions, including Hamas.”

The senior Fatah official did not stop there, however, and went on to accuse Netanyahu of heading a “racist and fascist coalition”.

He warned that Netanyahu will be held responsible for the “terrorist policies” he uses against “the Palestinian people through settlements.” Rajoub also stressed that Abbas was committed to end the long-standing Israeli-Arab conflict through the two-state solution.

"We want the people of Israel to understand that the real danger to Israel's existence is the settlement project,” Rajoub told Walla!.

Rajoub is no stranger to statements against Israel, having just two weeks ago claimed in a television interview that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler could have learned from Israel about extermination camps.

He has suggested in the past that Israel "should be removed", and in February supported Hamas's threats to kidnap IDF soldiers on PA TV.