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“I do not see a solution for my people other than return to the homeland. This return is inevitable and it includes return to the future Palestinian state and to the Palestinian cities and villages in Israel.” This declaration was made two days ago by Dr. Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian foreign minister, at a news conference in Beirut.
“The right of return is no longer an illusion,” Shaath said. “It is an integral part of the Arab peace initiative (that of the Saudi Arabian crown prince), which is mentioned as a central document to which the road map refers.” After praising the road map Shaath stressed that “The right of return includes the return of the Palestinians to an independent Palestinian state, and also to the Palestinian cities and villages inside the Jewish state, whether an individual chooses to return to Haifa or Nablus.’
Shaath appeared two days ago before the news media at the Commodore Hotel in Beirut, accompanied by the Lebanese Foreign Minister Jean Obeid, shortly before flying to Damascus. In an angry speech Shaath charged that Israel “definitely” intends to violate the hudna, in order to explode the negotiations on the road map.
In an interview which he granted yesterday in Damascus to the al-Arabiye TV channel, he said: “The return of the refugees to the territory of the Palestinian state is guaranteed. The question of their return to their cities and villages inside Israel, is still a matter for negotiation.”
[Israeli] officials reacted with fury to Shaath’s statements. “They would mean the destruction of Israel,” an official in Jerusalem said yesterday. “The refugees will never return to the State of Israel. The Palestinians will have to choose between living in a state alongside Israel, or not having a state at all.”
Foreign ministry sources said Shaath’s statements were an attempt to divert world attention from the debate on dismantling the terrorist infrastructure. Health Minister Danny Naveh said “This declaration shows that the Palestinian leadership has not given up its desire to destroy the State of Israel.”
This article ran in the August 17th issue of Maariv
