PA Minister Sha'ath hardens line on refugee return to Israel

By Aluf Benn, Mazal Mualem and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies

In a series of statements made since last Thursday, at the start of a trip to Syria and Lebanon, Palestinian Authority External Affairs Minister Nabil Sha'ath has reiterated PA demands for Palestinian refugees to return to cities in Israel.

Sha'ath's most emphatic declaration on this was Friday at a news conference in a Beirut hotel and attended by delegates of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, who number close to 400,000.

He told the news conference the U.S.-sponsored road map for Middle East peace guaranteed the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in Israel or to lands conquered in the 1967 Six-Day War.

"We do not see a solution for our brothers in Lebanon except their return to their homeland," declared Sha'ath. "There is no other political solution. The return to their homeland is a must."

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/330069.html

in the next across-border attack from Lebanon?

In response, officials in Jerusalem accused the
Palestinians of ignoring the road map and
bringing up topics that were not included in
the plan. They pointed out that international
law does not recognize a right of return, and
said that it was a Palestinian notion invented
for propaganda purposes.

Okay, that was funny. I really have to wonder if these officials are literate. A solution to the refugee issue is very much included in the road-map, but hell, I guess we can't expect people who haven't even noticed that international law does indeed recognise the right of return to have actually read the road-map...

Violet...

if I remember correctly, that refugees should go to the Palestinian state. I'm not sure if it includes anything about just monetary reperations.

The Roadmap calls for a negotiation between both parties based on UNSC Resolutions 242, 338, and 1397.

And here I thought international law was non-negotiable...