"Ehud Olmert said that during his tenure as prime minister he had reached an agreement with the Americans for them to absorb 100,000 Palestinian refugees as part of a peace deal, adding that he struck a deal with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas according to which Israel would absorb "a minimal amount" of refugees.
The numbers discussed were below 20,000, but this would require and end to the conflict and a Palestinian announcement that they would not make any more demands," Olmert told a Geneva Initiative conference Sunday evening.
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"...an agreement with the Americans for them to absorb 100,000 Palestinian refugees."
ReplyDeleteWhy wouldn't they go to the Palestinian state?
Because the rest are supposed to be going there. Don't forget that there are 4 million of them now and although not all of them want to return, many would and the new state could never be able to absorb them. Also it would be totally ridiculous that IUsrael would "only" accept few thousamds. After all, they were kicked out from Israel not the West Bank..
ReplyDeleteJust over 700,000 were originally displaced. Palestinians enjoy a privilege that no other refugees on the planet do in that "all" of their descendants and relatives get to claim refugee status as well. That is still a huge # but there has never been a desire or effort to absorb or be absorbed.
DeleteIt's been close to 2000 years that the Jews left Palestine and have never been until 1920s more than 3 to 5% of the population and yet they still claim that it's their land and any Jew have a right to "return" inscribed in law in Israel. Are you mentally able to grasp the irony behind the comment you made in the light of the facts I just stated? I guess not..
Delete"Just over 700,000 were originally displaced"
DeleteWhat about those who were (and still are) displaced since? The displacement, and let's call it by its name, the ethnic cleansing never stopped since 1948 and taking place as we speak. It has NEVER stopped. Are you were of it or you're just playing dumb?
<span>Because the rest are supposed to be going there. Don't forget that there are 4 million of them now and although not all of them want to return, many would and the new state could never be able to absorb them. Also it would be totally ridiculous that Israel would "only" accept few thousads!! After all, they were kicked out from Israel not from the West Bank..</span>
ReplyDelete<span><span>Because the rest are supposed to be going there. Don't forget that there are 4 million of them now and although not all of them want to return, many would and the new state could never be able to absorb them. Also it would be totally ridiculous that Israel would "only" accept few thousads!! After all, they were kicked out from Israel not from the West Bank..</span></span>
ReplyDeleteFinally why would Israel get away from the massive ethnic cleansing it perpertrated 62 years ago? It's not up to the US and the Arabs to absorb the refugees it's Israel's prime crime. Alsi building a state which is ethnocentric is in contradiction with the very statement with "democratic".
I just do not see Israel ever agreeing to take in more than a very small percentage, do you? If you can look at it for a moment dispassionately, wouldn't Israel be suicidal in doing so? I know you would like Israel to be suicidal, but do you realistically think it will happen?
ReplyDelete<span>Finally why would Israel get away from the massive ethnic cleansing it perpertrated 62 years ago?</span>
I don't know, maybe for the same reason Turkey got away with a far more deadly massive ethnic cleansing and genocide of Armenians and Assyrians almost 100 years ago? The world moves on. Tragic. Unjust. True.
It's not suicidal for a democratic state , only for a "Jewish state. Besides, 4 millions won't return (I doubt Australian and American Palestinians would) and do not have to return in masse if a form of adequate and fair compensation is considered, something Israel never contemplated as it would be perceived as admission of guilt god forbid..
ReplyDeleteBTW, one crime doesn't cancel the other and no one should get away with anything..ethnic cleansing should not be pussyfooting around. It's a major crime against humanity.
BTW, what's acceptable by Israel should not be an issue as they have NEVER accepted any "concessions" on anything, but that doesn't mean they should get away with it and persist in doing so. Time to grow up and evolve. The very notion of a Jewish state is an anachronism. Importing a tribe of Indian or Mongolian Jews while refusing the return of a Jerusalemite to his city is atrocious to ponder yet that's exactly what is happening. Many Israelis themselves find this practice abhorrent..
ReplyDeleteFrom what I read years ago, Israel in its ongoing talks was imposing restrictions on a new state that would be formed from the WB and Gaza. The new state would not be allowed to open its borders to all Palestinians living on outside because Israel feared that the borders would not contain them. We hear less and less of such conditions being imposed but we still hear that Israel is insisting on maintaining absolute control over Palestine's land and maritime borders as well as its airspace. In other words, Palestine would be sort of an semi-autonomous colony of Israel.
ReplyDeleteAlso over the years in various other talks, Israel was saying it would accept the repatriation of Palestinians born in pre-48 Palestine. In today's terms, this would mean that the youngest Palestinian allowed to return would be 62 years old and the deal was that this person would not be allowed to bring in with him any of his children born outside Palestine which makes it an absurd offer since hardly any Palestinian of that age would want enter Israel without his family. With an average life expectancy of about 70 years for Palestinians, this would have meant that most of those eligible would have died and therefore the Israeli offer from about 10 or 12 years back was pure bogus. At the time of this offer, it was estimated that the refugee camp population contained less than 10% that would have fallen into the pre-48 category and very few of those would have left without their children and grandchildren. It's a foregone conclusion that Olmert's and Bush's 100,000 Palestinians would have been herded into existing Palestinian-Israeli villages. If the under 45-year old Palestinians cannot enter Jerusalem to pray on a Friday morning today, we can imagine how Israel would have picked the 100,000.
As to the generous offers by other countries to take in Palestinians, these were really made to help ease the pressure on Israel, Canada had offered to take in 20,000, cherry-picked among the 19-35 year olds, in good health which would have helped Canada's demographic problem. I think Australia had a similar offer on the table.
About 14 years back, Lebanon turned down an American offer of 20 billions to naturalize the 400,000 Palestinians in the camps there.
Tgia, I do not disagree with you, but how is Israel going to be made to do all of this?
ReplyDeleteBush agreed to take 100 thousand Palestinian refugees? Good. America should take 200 thousand Palestinian refugess and give the Palestinians over $10 billion in grants as part of the final settlement with Israel.
ReplyDeleteVZA, what do you think about my idea of reserving 40% of all Israeli university admissions to Palestinians [Israeli citizen Palestinians, West Bankers, Gazans, diaspora refugees]? All on fully financed scholarships. This is my proposal for right of return.
Shouldn't all Arab nations offer their Palestinians national citizenship? Shouldn't Arabs treat Palestinians better to set an example for how Israel should behave?
ReplyDelete