Subscribe to our daily e-mail newsletter

E-mail:

Israel News Feed Or subscribe to our RSS feed | What is RSS?
Israel News from Jerusalem Newswire
Peace Process

?Palestinians? reject Sharon?s peace overtures


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
December 17, 2004

The Palestinian Authority Thursday rejected out of hand Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s vision for lasting peace in the region, which he laid out during his speech to the annual Herzliya Conference.

Sharon reiterated Israel’s readiness to make major concessions to the “Palestinians,” but insisted the PA must also be prepared to do the same by relinquishing demands that threaten the Jewish state’s existence — such as a “right of return” for so-called “Palestinian refugees.”

He also spoke of Israel’s determination to retain sovereignty over all of Jerusalem and major settlements in the ancient Jewish lands of Judea and Samaria.

The prime minister stated that if the “Palestinians” halted their murderous campaign against Israel’s Jews, they would find “tranquility” and an “honest and brave hand” extended in peace.

“We have no desire to rule over you, we have no desire to run your affairs,” Sharon said, speaking directly to Israel’s “peace” partners.

The PA reacted angrily to Sharon’s overtures.

Sharon’s “statements are unacceptable and completely rejected,” PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas told Al Jazeera Thursday night.

Abbas said the Arabs would never cease to view as illegal Jewish communities built on lands said to belong to the contrived “Palestinian” nation.

He said this “has been our position since 1967,” though the Arabs have violently opposed any Jewish presence in the region since the latter part of the 19th century.

“With regard to the issue of the refugees,” Abbas said, “it is a legitimate right” that they be allowed to flood sovereign Israel, resulting in the demographic annihilation of the Jewish state.

As justification, the PLO chief pointed to UN Resolution 194, which is a non-binding General Assembly dictate calling for a refugees from the 1948 Middle East war to be allowed to return to their homes.

In addition to the Arabs refugees, most of whom voluntarily left the area, hundreds of thousands of Jews were driven from their homes in neighboring Arab states during that period.

Echoing Abbas, senior PA cabinet minister Saeb Erekat was quoted by The Jerusalem Post as calling Sharon’s remarks a “self-deception.”

“What Sharon is saying is that he wants to establish a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and 40 percent of the West Bank, without Jerusalem and without the right of return,” Erekat ranted.

[ Ed. Note — Sharon did not say the PA would be left with only 40 percent of the West Bank, and instead indicated Israel would only seek sovereignty over the major settlement blocs, which comprise less than 5 percent of Judea and Samaria. ]

“For this [Sharon] won’t find a Palestinian partner,” Erekat said, suggesting that for the Arabs, peaceful coexistence is a marginal concern, while regaining lands lost during wars of aggression against the Jewish state remains their prime focus.

Erekat said the “Palestinians” would never accept any peace deal that did not include a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders, including in Jerusalem, and the opening of Israel’s gates to some four million Arab “refugees.”

Like the article?
Help spread the word:
Jnewswire updates
Never miss another story
  • Inbox already too full?
    Subscribe to our
    RSS feed instead!