Palestinian PM says Jews would be welcome in new state

Myanmar News.Net
Sunday 5th July, 2009

Israel's right-wing government has once again spoken about softening its position on the creation of a Palestinian state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a weekly Cabinet meeting that Israel supports the concept of "two states for two peoples."

Mr Netanyahu, who has long opposed a Palestinian state and supported Jewish settlement in all the biblical Land of Israel, is believed to have changed his position due to the deepening rift between Israel and Washington, which supports the two-state solution.

However, the Cabinet also heard Mr Netanyahu’s tough conditions for Palestinian statehood.

He said the Palestinian state must be demilitarised, Israel must be recognized as a Jewish state, and Palestinian refugees would not be able to return to their former homes in Israel.

The Palestinians, sceptical about Israeli plans, have responded to Mr Netanyahu’s comments by saying his plans would only lead to a ghetto, with no sovereignty and no control of its land.

Mr. Netanyahu has already rejected US and Palestinian demands for a complete freeze on construction in the settlements.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister, Salaam Fayad, has said Jews would enjoy freedom and civil rights in a future Palestinian state and would be treated in the same way as Israeli Arabs.

Speaking in Aspen, Colorado, where he was attending the Aspen Ideas Festival, the Palestinian PM was reported by the Aspen Daily News as saying: "Jews to the extent they choose to stay and live in the state of Palestine will enjoy those rights and certainly will not enjoy any fewer rights than Israeli Arabs enjoy now in the state of Israel.”

According to the Aspen daily, the crowd enthusiastically applauded him.

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