Bennett rejects Palestinian ‘right of return’ to West Bank

•By TOVAH LAZAROFF salem has argued, would undermine the concept of two states for peoples. Palestinian refugees can not be allowed But Liberman, like Bennett, raised the to return to the West Bank en masse, issue of the risks of such a resolution in Education Minister Naftali Bennett told the current geopolitical reality. Army Radio on Sunday morning. He The Palestinian Authority can absorb warned that such a move would endan- the refugees, but pragmatically it would ger the State of Israel. be difficult, Liberman said. “Anyone who allows millions of [Pal- “If they want to take them in Nablus estinian] refugees into Kalkilya and or Hebron or Kalkilya, let them,” he said. Tulkarm will turn Route 6 into a large At issue, Liberman said, are 700,000 refugee camp,” Bennett said, referring to Palestinian refugees and their descen- the major highway that lies adjacent to dants living in Syria and Lebanon. the two Palestinian cities. “Not a single Palestinian will return Kfar Saba is just three minutes from from Canada or the United Kingdom,” Kalkilya said Bennett, as he spoke of the he said. area in the center of the country. Those who would seek to relocate to “I want to see a resident of Kfar Saba the newly created Palestinian state would who would agree to see [in their back- be refugees in Syria or Lebanon, who now NAFTALI BENNETT yard] thousands of buildings filled with live in those countries without rights. (Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post) refugees from Syria and Lebanon,” he “All of those would want to return,” said. Liberman said. Bennett said part of his opposition to “To absorb 700,000 people in terms of the creation of a Palestinian state stems Bank, which is under Israeli military and housing and the economy and people from the issue of Palestinian refugees, civil control. who do not have a profession, there is who would be allowed the right-of-re- Bennett spoke about the issue of Pales- a generation growing up in Syria that turn to such a state. tinian refugees in response to comments for the last six years have not been to Providing the Palestinians with auton- made by Defense Minister Avigdor Liber- school,” he said. “Do not delude your- omy instead of statehood in the West man on the topic when he spoke last selves. Even when we resolve the conflict Bank would prohibit such an option, he week at the annual Herzliya Conference. with the Palestinians it will not solve the said. “We will not allow one single refugee to issues, it will magnify them.” Bennett linked the issue of the return return to the 1967 lines,” Liberman said. It is one of the reasons that a final-sta- of Palestinian refugees to a future state “That is at least my opinion, not a single tus agreement to end the Israeli-Pales- in the West Bank, to his opposition to refugee, not a quarter-refugee will return tinian conflict has to be a regional deal, an approved plan to expand Kalkilya by to the ’67 lines.” Liberman said. 14,000 new homes by 2035. Israel has long operated from the pre- “The only thing that is a light at the Kalkilya is located in Area A of the sumption that in any final status agree- end of the tunnel is a regional arrange- West Bank which is under the auspices of ment with the Palestinians, refugees ment, a comprehensive agreement, full the Palestinian Authority. The Kalkilya would have the right-of-return to the diplomatic relations, full economic rela- plan, which the security cabinet is slated newly created Palestinian state but not to tions, not under the table but over the to vote on for the second time, would sovereign Israel. table with Gulf States, with Saudi Arabia expand the city into Area C of the West Any other resolution of the issue, Jeru- [and with] Kuwait,” he said.