Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Palestinians have no territorial demands on Israel in its pre-1967 lines. Abbas said implicitly in an interview with the Israeli Channel 2 television that the right of return of millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendents will be to the future Palestinian state. The right of return is one of the key obstacles in the peace process between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. “Palestine for me is the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital. This is Palestine, I am a refugee, I live in Ramallah, the West Bank and Gaza is Palestine, everything else is Israel," Abbas said in the interview which was held Thursday in his Ramallah's Al-Muqata'a headquarters. The Palestinian president said that he was not seeking the right to live in Israel even though he was born in the town of Safad, in what since 1948 has been northern Israel. Abbas said he had visited the town and would like to see it again. “It's my right to see it, but not to live there," he said. Israel rejects the idea of Palestinian refugees' right of return to their original homes in the 1948 areas in accordance with the UN General Assembly Resolution 194, saying that in any future peace solution, they can only return to their independent state, which will be established in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel fears that a massive influx would threaten the Jewish majority in the country, which now counts some eight million of whom some 1.6 million Arab Palestinians. Some six million Palestinian refugees are scattered around the world, including more than 400,000 in Lebanon. They are dependent on UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). The Palestinian president also urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to return to the negotiating table ahead of the upcoming elections. His only condition was that Netanyahu declare his agreement to a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders, he said. Abbas indicated that he represented the final chance for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. “This issue will determine the fate of your children, I am the last person with whom you can reach an agreement." Abbas said that as long as he remains in power, he will not allow a third, armed intifada to break out. “We will not go back to violence," Abbas said during the interview. “We will only operate through diplomacy and through peaceful means. That's it." He noted, however, that he did intend to seek an upgrade in status for Palestine as a non-member state at the UN General Assembly. And he criticized Israel's continued settlement construction in the West Bank. On Thursday, Palestinian sources said that the PA considers Nov. 15 or Nov. 29 as its goal dates for the vote, despite the threat of financial sanctions by the US administration and Israel. The US has said it wants the recognition of the Palestinian state to be a result of a negotiated agreement between the concerned parties. The US Congress has blocked nearly $200 million in aid for the PA after Abbas asked the UN Security Council in September 2011 to recognize a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza with West Jerusalem as its capital. According to Palestinian sources, Abbas dispatched several senior officials to EU countries to convince them to vote in favor of the bid. The US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed after Israel refused to extend a 10-month moratorium over freezing settlement constructions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The international community, including the US, Israel's most important ally, has been urging Israel to totally freeze its settlement constructions, yet Netanyahu's government has so far refused to yield to that demand.
