Yasser Arafat has told an Israeli newspaper that he recognises Israel’s right to remain a Jewish state and is, therefore, prepared to accept the return of only a fraction of the Palestinian refugees.
In an interview with Ha’aretz, published on Friday, the Palestinian leader was asked if he understood that ”Israel has to keep being a Jewish state”?
”Definitely,” he replied.
Ha’aretz said it was the first time he had said he recognised the state’s Jewish character. In 1988, he said that the Palestine Liberation Organisation he headed accepted Israel’s right to exist, but made no reference to it being a Jewish state.
In the Ha’aretz interview, he says it is ”clear and obvious” that the refugee problem needs to be resolved in a way that does not change the Jewish character of Israel through an influx of millions of returning Palestinians — a core concern of many ordinary Israelis. Last week a former Israeli military intelligence chief, Amos Malka, said he believed that Arafat would accept fewer than 30 000 refugees returning to their homes in Israel, provided that this was coupled with Israeli recognition of responsibility for their plight.
The Geneva Initiative, which Arafat has endorsed, envisages a similar number and an acknowledgement that Israel contributed to the suffering of refugees.
The Palestinian leader declined to be drawn on numbers in the interview. He noted that there were 200 000 refugees living in difficult conditions in Lebanon who had to be helped, but said there was nothing to stop most of them moving to the West Bank if a Palestinian state were established there. But he criticised Israel for permitting an influx of about one-million Russians after the Soviet collapse, while keeping out Palestinians born in what is now Israel.
His view on the shape of a Palestinian state remains the same. He wants Israeli withdrawal from 97% of the West Bank and all of Gaza. Israel must also quit east Jerusalem.
Arafat’s intentions have been at the centre of a political argument within Israel, after Amos Gilad, a former deputy chief of military intelligence, said the Palestinian leader sought the destruction of Israel. Malka responded by saying Arafat would have been prepared to make peace in 2000 if the then Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, had made a better offer.
Israeli helicopters fired six missiles at three buildings in a crowded Gaza Strip neighbourhood on Friday night, witnesses said. At least three people were injured, hospital officials said.
One strike hit a metal workshop which had been targeted several months before. Israel claimed it was used by militants to make rockets. – Guardian Unlimited Â