Barakeh to PA: Don’t surrender Right of Return
Meeting with Palestinian journalists in Ramallah, Hadash MK Mohammad Barakeh warns Palestinians not to agree to Palestinian state on borders smaller than 1967 and not to give up right of return; Barakeh also accuses Israel of trying to starve Palestinians into submission
Chairman of Hadash Knesset Member Mohammad Barakeh warned Palestinians Wednesday not to be tempted to accept a smaller country and give up the Right of Return when the permanent status is set between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Barakeh, who was hosted in the Palestinian public relations ministry in Ramallah Wednesday, participated in a project called “Meet the Press,” during which he met with and answered the questions of a group of Palestinian journalists.
The meeting was part of activities marking the anniversary of what the Palestinians call the “catastrophe” of Israel’s establishment, or the “Nakba,” and dealt mainly with topics related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. MK Barakeh expressed his concern that the Palestinians would give up the Right of Return in order to get a country, that would be “tiny and smaller than the 1967 borders.” He even disparaged a few Palestinian lawmakers who meet with Israeli officials and “volunteer to surrender without anyone qualifying them to do so. This is a very dangerous matter.”
Barakeh defined himself as a “refugee from his homeland,” and added, “We the refugees must not only fight for the right of return but also guard the memory and consciousness of Arab names for places. Israel did not only steal land, but also change names to erase history.”
Addressing the deteriorating financial state of the Palestinian Authority, Barakeh accused Israel of trying to starve the Palestinians to lead them to abandon their national goals. “Israel is acting to starve the Palestinian people so that it will focus only on getting its bread, and lower its expectations,” he said. According to Barakeh’s accusations, Israel took advantage of the world forces to “narrow the discussion on Palestinian rights from a discussion of a legitimate country with rights to talks on the Road map, which isn’t even presented in its original format anymore.”
Barakeh also attacked the Arab banks which are failing to transfer money to the PA. “The Arab banks are subject to pressures from American banks, while the Americans are leaning on a colossal Arab fortune. Despite this, the Arab owners of the fortune aren’t threatening to pull it out of those banks,” Barakeh said.
During the conversations, Barakeh commented on Hamas and hinted that the organization is causing the isolation of the Palestinians internationally. He called on Palestinian factions to define a unified strategy based on the permanent principles of the Palestinian people, centered on the establishment of a Palestinian state on all the lands of 1967 including Jerusalem, as well as a solution to the refugee problem. This would allow “a return to the negotiating table and isolation of the occupation and its crimes, instead of the isolation of the Palestinian people,” Barakeh said.
When asked whether he agreed with United Arab List-Ta’al MK Ibrahim Sarsur’s recent comment that Israeli settlers could stay in the West Bank as Palestinian citizens, Barakeh hotly objected. “The statements are irresponsible and extremely dangerous. (Sarsur) is dealing with a subject before its time, and speaking about settlers as if they’re home and land owners and not thieves. The most dangerous and annoying thing is his comparison of settlers with us – Palestinians in Israel. We are not settlers, but have lived in our homeland for generations,” he said.
