HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
ANNUAL TRIBUTE TO ISRAEL'S FALLEN, PAST AND PRESENT
AND
ISRAELI INDEPENDENCE DAY, 55 YEARS AND COUNTING
Posted on 05/07/2003 7:52:13 AM PDT by SJackson
Sharon demands Palestinians drop right of return
Sharon ... "right of return is a recipe for destruction of Israel"
The Israeli Prime Minister has demanded that, as a condition for movement in peace talks, the Palestinians drop a cornerstone of their policy - the "right of return" of refugees and their descendants to Israel.
In an interview with Israel Radio to mark Israel's Independence Day, Ariel Sharon said the "right of return is a recipe for the destruction of Israel" because it would flood the country with Arabs.
"We will not accept such a thing," he said. "We made that very clear."
Palestinians said Israel was trying to sabotage a new Middle East peace plan.
Mr Sharon's demand cast a shadow on the plan, called the "road map", which aims to put a stop to 31 months of bloody violence and lead to a Palestinian state by 2005.
Referring to a United Nations resolution during the two-year war that followed Israel's creation in 1948, Palestinians say that 700,000 refugees, who fled or were expelled, have the right to return to their original homes. However, Israel has never before made renunciation of the refugee demand a condition for peace talks.
Last week the "quartet" of Middle East mediators - the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations - presented the peace plan, a three-year process in three phases that calls for establishment of a provisional Palestinian state in the second stage and negotiations over tough issues, including refugees, in the final stage.
However, Mr Sharon indicated that Israel would demand a renunciation of the refugee demand before that. "This is something Israel insists on and sees it as a condition for continuing the process," he said.
Israeli officials said renunciation would have to come before the creation of a provisional Palestinian state in the second of the plan's three phases.
About 3.9 million Palestinian refugees are registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Most live in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Israeli leaders have said their return to their former homes would be demographic suicide for the Jewish state, which has a population of 5.8 million.
Mr Sharon's demand is likely to be raised with the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, who is due in the region on Saturday.
The new Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, said the Israeli demand "is one of their dreams [that] we reject completely", noting that the refugee issue is to be negotiated in the final stage. All refugees had the right to return and "I cannot abandon this right", he said.
Palestinians have accepted the road-map plan and are calling for international pressure on Israel to implement it. Mr Sharon said that in the coming days there would be another discussion in Washington over the 15 objections Israel has raised, delaying the start of the process.
The Telegraph, London with agencies
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Abbas rejects Israeli demand on refugees
Palestinian prime minister accuses Sharon of holding up peace process; Infant killed by army fire in Gaza Strip
JERUSALEM -- A Palestinian infant was killed by Israeli army fire in the Gaza Strip today, as the Palestinian prime minister flatly rejected Israel's new condition for peace talks.
The disagreement over the fate of Palestinian refugees raises new doubts about whether a U.S.-backed peace plan can be implemented. Israel now insists the Palestinians scrap a demand for the "right of return" of the refugees without further discussion, even though the peace plan stipulates the refugee issue is a subject for future negotiations.
In the Gaza town of Khan Younis, 1-year-old Alian Bashiti was hit in the head by a bullet and later died at a local hospital, doctors said. Palestinians said Israeli soldiers fired at a neighborhood in Khan Younis, and that the boy was in his house when he was hit.
The Israeli military said soldiers at an outpost guarding Israeli settlements had come under fire from Palestinians. "It is a very unfortunate incident, but the soldiers were forced to fire at the source of the shooting," the spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Also today, a Hamas fugitive was killed in a mysterious explosion in a house in Zawata, a village near the West Bank city of Nablus. Hamas blamed Israel, but local firefighters said the blast went off inside the house, ruling out an Israeli missile attack.
Israel has killed dozens of suspected militants in targeted attacks in the past 31 months of fighting. However, a number of militants also died while handling explosives that went off prematurely.
Meanwhile, disagreements continued to plague the new "road map" plan even before its first stage.
In an interview broadcast late Tuesday on Palestine TV, Abbas said he could not drop the Palestinian demand for the right of return of refugees and their descendants -- about 4 million people -- to their former homes in what is now Israel.
The road map is a three-stage plan that envisions the start of talks on a final peace deal in the last phase. Among the issues to be discussed are borders of a Palestinian state, the fate of refugees, the status of Jerusalem and the future of Jewish settlements.
However, Sharon said Tuesday that the Palestinians must renounce the "right of return" earlier, calling the prospect of hundreds of thousands of Arabs entering the Jewish state "a recipe for the destruction of Israel."
Israeli officials said the renunciation must come before the second stage, in which a provisional Palestinian state in temporary borders would be set up.
In the TV interview, Abbas, a refugee himself, said: "The refugees issue is for the final status. Keep it there and we will discuss it."
"Why would I drop the right of return for refugees? It is not my right to drop it," he said.
Abbas said Israel is holding up progress toward peace by failing to accept the plan. "From the beginning there is a big question mark on the road map because Israel doesn't want to implement it," he said.
Abbas, one of the first Palestinian leaders to speak out against the violent aspects of the Palestinian uprising, repeated his opposition to armed attacks.
"We want to stop it," he said. "We need a calming period for our people to allow them to rebuild what was destroyed," he said, referring to punishing Israeli military strikes in response to Palestinian attacks.
Palestinian officials say a dialogue between Fatah, the mainstream group headed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Abbas, and militant groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, will resume in Cairo in the coming days. The goal is to agree on a halt to attacks. Earlier rounds failed. Officials said there have been no contacts since Abbas visited Gaza last month, before setting up his Cabinet.
Also, a Fatah official said Abbas settled a dispute with Fatah over the responsibilities of Mohammed Dahlan, a former Gaza strongman appointed as junior minister in charge of security.
Abbas had announced he was turning over all his responsibilities as interior minister over to Dahlan, upsetting Fatah leaders, who had objected to naming him minister. Abbas then clarified that he would retain the interior portfolio and seek Cabinet approval for Dahlan's powers, the official said, insisting on anonymity.
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press
I'm so sick of this BS.
This really isn’t a question of Constitutional restrictions, rather a simple immigration matter. Does Israel want to let 3 million or so refugees in based on a tenuous connection to refugees who fled and opted not to return 50 years ago. Kind of like granting citizenship to 75 million current Mexican citizens, based on their connection to the land prior to the illegal Texan revolt and the US war of aggression on Mexico.
Because it works, a large chunk of the world sympathizes with their plight. Extrapolating the road map solution to Iraq, we'd make Tariq Aziz president and put Sadaam in charge of security, since he's done a good job in the past, send Baghdad Bob to the UN.
Hold an election and, voila, a fledgling middle east democracy.
By any Arab to Israel.
Well, there is a % of the 3.9MM-ish refugees who actually did leave Israel at the outbreak of the 1948 war. Those would be the survivors of the ~750,000 refugees from 1948.
That being said, the palis base their 'right of return' primarily on paragraph 11 of UN Resolution 194 (12/11/48):
..."11. Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible;", (bold emphasis added by moi :)
and §2, para 2 of UN Security Council Resolution 242 (11/22/67):
"Affirms further the necessity.... For achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem;"
One should note that:
1) - neither resolution mentions palis (there were probably an equal number of Jewish refugees who fled from arab lands)
2) - there is serious question as to whether or not pali refugees '..[wish to] live at peace with their neighbours...'
3) - 194, being a General Assembly resolution, is non-binding
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