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IslamOnline Visitors Say Current Proposal On Palestine No Good
WASHINGTON (IslamOnline) – Participants in IslamOnline’s poll overwhelmingly voted against trading control over 95% of the West Bank and the entire Gaza Strip in exchange for delaying Palestinian refugee right of return as an acceptable compromise even for the time being.
Over 85% of IslamOnline visitors participating in the poll rejected the idea of trading Palestinian control in most of the currently Occupied Territories given that the trade-off would mean giving up the possibility that Palestinians spread throughout the world would have to give up on returning to Palestine.
Fifteen percent, however, believed that for the time being, it was an acceptable compromise.
Many of the issues surrounding the proposal have been altered since the time it was initially offered more than a week ago.
At first, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said that talks related to the issue of Palestinian right of return would be put off for two or three years under the plan, while during that period only relatives of Palestinians already in the Occupied Territories would be allowed to return.
The length of their stay was left vague.
Later, Barak seemed to amend the plan in statements lacking the two to three year time frame, hinting that the exchange of land for giving up right of return would be permanent. Meaning that the issue of later return would be shelved and that the deal would require totally giving up Palestinian right of return.
Also, IslamOnline did not add in the factor of Palestinian control over the al-Aqsa compound, again because of the vague references made by Barak and the Israeli state.
Initially, Barak said that in addition to control West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinian Authority would be able to control parts of east Jerusalem populated by Palestinians, including the al-Aqsa compound housing the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque, the third most holy site in Islam.
However, Israel would maintain control of the Wailing Wall, a Jewish holy site. The Wailing, or Western, Wall makes up the foundation for the al-Aqsa compound above it.
Later, the Israeli state issued statements saying that under no circumstances would Israel give up sovereignty over the area. The problem has become: what constitutes this “area”? The Wailing Wall, the entire area containing both the Wall and the al-Aqsa compound, or all of Jerusalem?
These matters, to this point, remain vague and unresolved.
Compounding these matters, most of the current Jewish settlements within the proposed Palestinian areas of control would still be allowed to remain.
Given these occurrences, IslamOnline’s informal and unscientific poll indicates that 85% of poll participants find swapping control over substantial parts of the Occupied Territories in exchange for giving up Palestinian right of return is not an acceptable compromise.
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