Ahmadinejad: Israelis should go back to original homes

Iranian president at 'Intifada Conference' says Palestinians should also "go home" and this would provide "simple solution" to solve conflict.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 311 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 311 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl)
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday proposed a “simple solution” to the Middle East conflict, exhorting all Israelis and Palestinians to simply “go home.”
“If the backers of the Zionist regime want to solve the issue... the solution is simple ... everyone should go home,” the Iranian president told participants at Tehran’s fifth annual “Conference in support of Palestine’s intifada.”
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“Some poor people were brought to Palestine on the promise of security and jobs while they made Palestinian people into refugees... So now Palestinians should go home and those brought here should go to theirs,” Ahmadinejad said, according to a translation provided by AFP.
Echoing previous remarks, the Iranian leader described the Jewish state as “a cancerous tumor,” which had to be removed to save the Middle East and the entire world.
Iran’s English-language Press TV agency quoted Ahmadinejad as describing Israel’s creation as “the most heinous historical crime,” and slamming Western intolerance for debate over the Jewish state’s existence. Israel, he said, has become so sanctified in western capitals that “any criticism of the Zionist regime is tantamount to being a terrorist,” he said. “The only sacred thing in Europe is the Zionist regime.”
Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal attended the event, as did lawmakers from 20 countries around the region.
A day earlier, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated Tehran’s opposition to the division of historical Palestine.
“Any plan that would lead to the division of Palestine is unacceptable,” he said. “Any plan that would create two states... would be accepting a Zionist state in the land of Palestine.”
Ahmadinejad met Sunday with Nabih Berri, Lebanon’s speaker of parliament and a Hezbollah ally, who chaired the day’s conference proceedings. Also attending the meeting were Mohammad Raad, head of Hezbollah’s ruling parliamentary bloc, and a delegation from Berri’s Amal Party, Beirut’s Daily Star newspaper reported.
“You have established a resistance that raised hope after the victories and achievements it has made,” Ahmadinejad said of Berri.
“The region is going through developments that evoked worry and fears,” the Lebanese speaker replied. “Lebanon is developing, though slowly, but it is not an island. Therefore, it will be affected by what is happening in the region, especially since the Israeli enemy is still occupying part of our land. Even if this land is small, this means that sovereignty is incomplete.”
During the conference Berri scolded Arab countries for boycotting the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad to protest his sixmonth crackdown of a popular uprising.
“Where is the official Arab boycott of Israel instead of Syria? Why is Arab money spent on financing the protests in Syria instead of supporting the Palestinian people to stay in their land? Why are Arab media efforts focused on increasing tension in Syria instead of exposing the crimes of the Israeli occupation and its violations against our Palestinian people?” he asked.
Syria has traditionally been the greatest benefactor of Berri’s largely Shi’ite party, which opposed the country’s 2005 military pullout from Lebanon.
“Is it because Syria, like Iran, is part of the resistance and rejection against Israeli aggressiveness and racism, and is demanding a just and comprehensive peace according to UN resolutions and achievement of the Palestinian people’s aspirations?” Berri said. “My answer is simply: Yes.”