Monograph: As Negotiations Resume: The Palestinian Authority Stand on the “Right of Return”

Arlene Kushner
Center for Near East Policy Research
03 September '10

Mahmoud Abbas

Of primary interest when examining the position of the Palestinian Authority with regard to the “right of return” is the stand of Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen), president of the PA.

Abbas’s position on the matter is of long-standing and far precedes his presidency.

In 2000, as Secretary General of the PLO Executive Committee, he wrote about the issues confronted in Camp David. As to the “right of return,” he said:

“We encountered, and will encounter in the future, fierce resistance on this subject from the Israeli government, because the bottom line is that [the return of refugees] means altering the demographic character [of Israel] that the Israelis hope to preserve.

“...It is noteworthy in this matter, and this is also what we clarified to the Israelis, that the Right of Return means a return to Israel and not to the Palestinian State... When we talk about the Right of Return, we talk about the return of refugees to Israel, because Israel was the one who deported them and it is in Israel that their property is found...”[1]

In 2003, he told heads and leaders of the Popular Councils in the Gaza Strip Refugee Camps:

"Peace will not be achieved without the refugees getting back their sacred rights, which cannot be touched... It is the individual right of every refugee, and no one can reach an agreement in this matter without his consent."[2]

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