Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has gone to great lengths to allay the Israelis’ fears about the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank.
Most recently, Abbas touched upon the controversial Palestine refugee issue and their right of return or compensation while talking to a group of Israeli students who visited his headquarters in Ramallah, assuring them that he has no plan whatsoever to flood Israel with refugees.
“Propaganda says Abu Mazen wants to flood Israel with five million refugees to destroy the state of Israel,” said Abbas to the 250 visiting graduate students.
“This could not be farther from the truth,” the Palestinian leader added.
“All we said is that we should put the refugee file on the table because it is an issue we must solve to end the conflict,” said Abbas, adding that all the Palestinians are asking for in this regard is a “just and agreed-upon solution”.
No one can expect Abbas to go any farther in assuaging Israel’s anxiety about its future relations with the Palestinians in case talks yield some tangible result.
The issue of Palestinian refugee is one of the most divisive for the two sides. If there could be an agreement on it, the prospect of arriving at a breakthrough in the peace talks would probably be enhanced.
Another emotionally charged, important, issue that remains without solution is Jerusalem, which Abbas proposes to keep undivided and open, with the East and West having, each, its own municipality and a greater municipality of Jerusalem coordinating the functions of the two sides.
This is another proposal that may have the potential of breaking the deadlock on the future status of Jerusalem.
The Israeli students who were brought to Ramallah to hear Abbas out by OneVoice organisation, an international grassroots movement trying to promote dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, received quite a bunch of olive branches from the Palestinian leadership.
Through them, all Israelis will hopefully hear the Palestinian messages of peace louder.
