BERLIN (EJP)---The chairman of Germany’s main opposition party, the Social Democrats (SPD), has been forced to fend off criticism from German Jewish leaders following his announcement of the launch of “strategic dialogue” with the Palestinian Fatah party.

Sigmar Gabriel was left confused by criticism by Dieter Graumann, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, of the group’s decision to publish a joint paper with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’ party, after Graumann told German daily Bild Monday the SPD “should be ashamed” of last week’s paper, which he claimed amounted to linking up with a terror organisation that calls for hatred and agitation against Jews”.

Responding to the insinuations, Gabriel insisted Fatah was a recognised negotiating power the world over, as opposed to denounced Gaza rulers Hamas which is outlawed by the US, the EU and Israel. By contrast, Fatah, from whom Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in a coup in 2007, claims official meetings with European and international leaders and has led peace talks with Israel in the past.

"I don't understand the criticism," Gabriel said, adding that that the they had deliberately avoided collaborating with Hamas, which he described as  “not a good alternative”.

Ahead of next year’s fast approaching German national elections, which will see the SDP attempting to take on Conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration, Graumann concluded the group’s ties with Fatah made it “unfit for government”.

Meanwhile a leaked joint document by three left-wing German parties revealed plans to oppose the German government’s legislative efforts to preserve the practice of religious circumcision. The Associated Press claimed it had a petition of 50 members of the Bundestag (German parliament) campaigning for the legal age of circumcision to be raised to 14 so that the child could readily give his own consent to the procedure.

Jewish law requires male children to be circumcised on the eighth day after birht, whereas common Muslim religious practice similarly dictates the procedure should be performed early on in the child’s life.

The proposed bill would answer the charges posed by the initial Cologne regional court ruling in June that sparked the debate, after the court ruled that circumcision amounted to criminal bodily harm.