Kerry - Return 80,000 Palestinian refugees to Israel

Is This Any of Our Business?

• I am not an isolationist, but I really don't give a damn who "controls" any town in Palestine or Israel.  I am a Hell of a lot more interested in border security in California and Texas than in the West Bank.  Maybe we should be tending to our own affairs rather than sticking our noses into other people's affairs.

Secretary of State John Kerry proposed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas the return of 80,000 Palestinian refugees to Israel, a well-informed Palestinian official said on Monday.

Kerry's proposal on the return of Palestinian refugees was part of his ideas presented to the Palestinian side to reach a framework peace agreement, Xinhua quoted a senior official of the Palestinian government as saying.
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Kerry, who is visiting the region, had held talks Friday and Saturday with Abbas in Ramallah reports Zee News of India.
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 "Kerry's proposal on the return of refugees is the same proposal offered by former US president Bill Clinton during Camp David peace talks held in the United States in 2000," said the official.

He added that during their meetings, Abbas wants to increase the number of Palestinian refugees returning to Israel to 200,000, and the demand is still under discussion with Kerry.

As for the issue of Jerusalem, the official said, "Kerry's recent ideas focus on handing over parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinian National Authority and that Jordan will have the jurisdiction on holy sites and places in the city."

However, Israel still refuses to recognize east Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state, and insists that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the state of Israel, according to the official.

On the other hand, the Palestinian side opposes the proposal of recognising Israel as a Jewish state, the official said, adding that "gaps are still wide concerning the permanent status issues of the refugees, Jerusalem, borders, settlements and the Jewish state."

Jerusalem - The Center of World Hate
Over thousands of years the city of Jerusalem as been the focal point of world hate and death rather than peace and love.  Nothing has changed.  Personally I enjoyed Saladin (above) in the movie Kingdom of Heaven.  A lot of folks might agree.
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Saladin:   Will you yield the city?
Balian of Ibelin:   Before I lose it, I will burn it to the ground. Your holy places - ours. Every last thing in Jerusalem that drives men mad.
Saladin:   I wonder if it would not be better if you did.

Christmas Eve demolitions of Palestinian homes by Israel

Father and child amongst their belongings following the demolition of their home.

Property Rights Ignored

• There is plenty of finger pointing and blame to go around in the Middle East.  But one thing is for sure, when Israel bulldozes Arab homes and turns Arab land over to Jewish settlers they are not making friends with their neighbors.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees has condemned Israel's demolition of Palestinian Bedouin dwellings in the West Bank, calling for an immediate halt.

"UNRWA condemns the latest demolitions in the West Bank, which displaced 68 people, the most recent of which occurred on Christmas Eve," spokesman Chris Gunness said  in a statement.

“The demolitions took place in Ein Ayoub near Ramallah and Fasayil al-Wusta near Jericho in the Jordan valley with 61 persons displaced in Ein Ayoub, and seven persons, all refugees, displaced in Fasayil al-Wusta," Gunness said. He added that 32 of those displaced were children, "including a five year old girl who is paralyzed from the waist down," reports RT News.

Gunness stated that at least 663 Palestinian buildings – including 259 homes – have been demolished, and 1,103 Palestinians have been displaced in the West Bank and East Jerusalem this year.

The spokesman urged Israel to obey international laws and halt demolitions.

Israel maintains that it only dismantles buildings that were put up without permission. But Palestinians say they are almost never granted permits.

A Bedouin refugee child standing on the site of his demolished home.
Image from UNRWA

 Palestinian Christian Daoud Nassar
"The Israelis want this whole area. Their plan is to force as many of us as possible to leave," said Palestinian Christian Daoud Nassar, who is fighting to hold on to his family's farm in Nahalin.
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There cannot be peace in the Middle East, or anywhere else in the world, unless the right of individuals to own private property is respected by governments and protected by the courts.
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See our article:  "Do Arabs have Property Rights?"

In 1991, the Israeli military committee had ordered three-fourths of the Nassar farm taken by the state, claiming it was neither privately owned nor actively cultivated. The family went to court to challenge the order with land ownership papers dated and stamped 1924. But the military judge rejected the challenge, ruling the hand-drawn map inadmissible as evidence.

The ownership papers had been honored by Turkish, British and Jordanian rulers who came and went. And until the 1991 order, there had been no hint of trouble with the new Jewish government.