Abbas: I could go back home to Galilee

Addresses refugee deal in 'A-sharq al-Awsat'; says PA should have accepted split J'lem 60 years ago.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
abbas 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
abbas 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday that he had the right as a refugee to return to his home in the Galilee, but that he and other refugees would figure out how to actualize this right in an agreement with Israel. In an interview with London-based Arab newspaper A-sharq al-Awsat quoted on Israel Radio, Abbas said the land-swap plan proposed by Vice Premier Haim Ramon was a step in the right direction, and stressed that east Jerusalem was under occupation and must be returned. He added that the Palestinians should have accepted the partition of Jerusalem 60 years ago, but explained that the PA would not be satisfied with a state smaller than the 1967 borders. Abbas called Prime Minister Ehud Olmert a serious man interested in peace, but noted that the meetings between them were more about feeling out the situation, rather than negotiations on a final-status agreement.