By Ryan Jones
Sep 06, 2005
PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas Sunday seemed to undermine the Arab world?s primary justification for demanding the removal of Jewish towns from the region: that those communities had been built on stolen Arab lands.
During a visit to the Islamic University in Gaza, Abbas stated that 97.5 percent of those parts of Gaza Israel had vacated were state-owned lands.
Last week, Abbas warned against anyone attempting to ?forge documents or claim the settlement lands belong to him.?
The Palestinian Arabs, backed by the international community, have long claimed the Jewish settlements in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha) were built on lands stolen from local Arab families.
Commentators said that by admitting that this was in fact not the case, Abbas had called into question the ?need? to ethnically cleanse Yesha of Jews before the ?Palestinians? will accept the area as a state.