By Xinhua,
Jerusalem : Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Israel will not allow the return of any Palestinian refugees as part of a future statehood deal, Olmert’s office said on Thursday.
“The prime minister never offered to absorb 20,000 refugees in Israel. The prime minister again reiterates that under any future agreement, there will not be any return of Palestinian refugees to Israel in any number,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) was quoted by local daily Ha’aretz as saying.
The official statement was issued in response to an earlier Ha’aretz report that Olmert had proposed absorbing 2,000 refugees per year for 10 years as part of an agreement to establish a Palestinian state in most of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip.
According to the earlier report, Olmert had proposed to Abbas that the “shelf agreement” the two sides are working on include an agreement for Israel to take in Palestinian refugees as part of “family unification.”
Sources in Israel and the United States said that according to Olmert’s offer, the absorption would be based on humanitarianism and according to a formula to be determined in advance.
The PMO, however, responded to the report by saying that Olmert’ s stance is that the establishment of a Palestinian state is meant to provide an answer to the absorption of Palestinian refugees, and those refugees who are not returned to a Palestinian state will be dealt with by an international force.
The American stance on this matter is identical to that of Israel, as expressed in U.S. President George W. Bush’s April 2004letter, in which he says Palestinian refugees will not be returned to the State of Israel but to a future Palestinian state, the PMO added.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is conducting parallel talks with the Palestinians’ chief negotiator Ahmed Qureia, is opposed to Israel’s taking in any Palestinian refugees, and also refuses to accept them on the basis of family reunification, said Ha’aretz.
In her opinion, Israel must not compromise on letting in refugees, because that would be interpreted as an opening to exercising the “right of return.”
Livni had made it clear to the U.S. administration that if Israeli cabinet is presented with a memorandum of understanding that includes allowing refugees into Israel, she might vote against it.