Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence to get a Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is meant to evade making comprehensive peace with the Palestinians, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday.

"Such a demand is meant to kill time and sabotage the peace negotiations," Nabil Abu Rdeneh said in a statement, the state-run Wafa news agency reported.

Abu Rdeneh noted that Netanyahu's request is dismissed by the Palestinians and the Arabs.

In a speech during his recent visit to Washington, Netanyahu renewed his calls on Abbas to recognize Israel as a state for the Jews.

For her part, Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee, told Xinhua that Netanyahu's demand is unacceptable since it contradicts with the Palestinians' aspirations to have a democratic state that embraces all religions and races.

She said recognizing Israel as a Jewish state is an act of discrimination against the ethnic Arabs of Israel who are not Jews.

A Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state may also end the dream of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees to return homes they fled during the conflict with Israel in 1948.

Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations resumed last July under US auspices. However, negotiators announced in various occasions that peace talks have not made any tangible progress.