Why do you think that through all the opression, violence and hurt that the Palestinian people still have not been given their right to return to their homeland?
Answer
The reason that they have not been given their right to their homeland is that if the Israelis recognized that the Palestinians have a right to return, then they would no longer be able to justify their occupation of Palestinian territory. In fact, the Likud Party has said that they will never accept a Palestinian right to return. Former Israeli Prime Minister and Likud Party member Netanyahu advisor Dore Gold said, "The policy guidelines of the present Israeli government explicitly state the government will oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state or any foreign sovreignty West of the Jordan river and will oppose the right of return of Arab populations to any part of the land of Israel West of the Jordan river."
Of course, there are Israelis who disagree with that. For example, on humanitarian grounds/family reunification, there has been some discussion about Palestinian refugees being allowed to return to a Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza. On humanitarian grounds/family reunification, they may also allow a few Palestinian to return to Israel.
Name
Siraj
- United States
Profession
Question
Who do you really think is at fault for the missed peace accord deadline?
Answer
All of the above parties are at fault for missing the deadline. The United States, the Palestinian Authority and Israel all knew that solving the issue of Jerusalem couldn't be resolved within the number of days that they had assumed that they would spend at Camp David. Therefore, that shows us some type of symbolic idea that the Clinton Administration was still involved with brokering peace and that if it wasn't at that point solved that it would fall onto the shoulders of Arafat for not accomplishing it.
The final status of Jerusalem is one of the most sensitive issues regarding occupation and peace. If we understand that, then we know that these three individuals, who are savvy politicians, knew that they would not be able to accomplish a resolution in the time that was spent at Camp David. There was word that progress in the meetings at Camp David was made, and that may be true, but to think that the status of Jerusalem was going to be resolved at this meeting was unrealistic. In fact, a Washington Times article stated that Yaser Arafat's deputies told him to not bother going to Camp David because they knew that solving the issue of Jerusalem would be almost impossible. They knew that any failure to accomplish that would be blamed on Arafat, so they told him he should stay away from the meetings. As we all know, he went anyway.
Name
Mustapha
- United States
Profession
Question
From the land that was taken from the Palestinians, how much of it has actually been returned? With the current peace accord, what is proposed for the Palestinians to receive in return for peace?
Answer
Yes, some of the Palestinian land has been returned. In fact, Netanyahu used to argue that the occupation no longer existed because some of the Palestinian land had been returned and put under the authority of the Palestinians through the PA. So definitely, there has been land that the Israelis have withdrawn from. For the exact figures of what percentage, we don't have those available at this time.
The Palestinians have been offered land and possibly a Palestinian state.
Name
Neglaa
- United Kingdom
Profession
Question
Do you think that Yaser Arafat has done enough to broker peace with the Israelis?
Answer
I think that Yaser Arafat has done too much to broker peace with the Israelis. His crack-down and arrests of Palestinians to appease so-called Israeli security concerns, the way that those jailed have been treated and sometimes held for years under very serious conditions shows that he has done too much to broker peace. The PA's human rights record is attrocious and most of the violations that it has been charged with have been explained away as requirements to fulfill the PA's agreement to end resistance and to ensure Israeli security without any regard for Palestinian security.
Name
Ismail
- Canada
Profession
Question
When do you think is more realistic of a date to expect any type of resolution to the peace accord?
Answer
That depends on a lot of variables. Are the current accords going to be successful? Will this be able to serve as a successful model to broker peace? We don't know? In my opinion, I don't think that the Oslo accords will lead to peace. I do believe that it is possible to have different arragements negotiated between the Palestinians and Israelis that will be able to accomodate both groups, but I don't believe that there will be a final sustainable peace until issues of justice have been addressed.
Name
Fatima
-
Profession
Question
Are there any other entities politically that have a more balanced stance on the issue of return than Arafat, or is the PA the only active Palestinian representative?
Answer
The PA is the only official representative of the Palestinian interest.
Name
Fatima
-
Profession
Question
What other players are there on the Palestinian side that have a different stance on return than the PA?
Answer
I don't know the particular position of every group on the right of return inside Palestine, but I know that there are some groups that need to be involved in finding solutions, but who refuse to participate in the Oslo accords. Therefore, there should be a method or mechanism for getting all the players involved in working out resolutions to these types of problems, like the final status issue because any final status agreement will have to be accepted by the people on the grassroots level in order for it to be implemented. However, the grassroots movements have been marginalized and are not being allowed to participate in figuring out answers to these issues and that is a mistake. Among these are the Islamic movements.
Name
Hasan
-
Profession
Question
Do you think that the land propsed for a Palestinian state would geographically be large enough for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees to return home? Or would the return to a Palestinian State be more of a moral victory that there is once again a Palestinian State?
Answer
First of all, when you look at the maps that have been drawn up representing a future Palestinian State, it is quite obvious that it could not accommodate the Millions of Palestinians living outside of Palestine who feel that they have a right to return to a homeland limited to the West Bank and Gaza. There has been no preparation made as far as infrastructure to accommodate any mass migration of Palestinian people from outside of Palestine to this proposed Palestinian State. So what we are more likely to see some type of proposal to make financial reparation, probably limited to the 1967 refugees, for land that they lost, for cost of resettlement and some type of punitive damages.
