Israel rejects Palestinian state and refugee return

Press TV- Israeli prime minister has ruled out the idea of a full-fledged Palestinian state and refugees' right to return to their homeland.

On Monday, Benjamin Netanyahu said Tel Aviv would not divide al-Quds (Jerusalem) -- the eastern part of which is wanted by the Palestinians as the capital of their future state, AFP reported.

Netanyahu said he wanted a demilitarized Palestinian state. The Israeli premier also said he wanted Palestinians to renounce refugees' right to return to their homes.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has rejected the Israeli proposals.

Israel fabricated its existence in 1948 during full-scale military offensives against the Arab world, forcing 711,000 Palestinians to leave their homeland. 2008 estimates put the number of Palestinian refugees at over 4.6 million.

In 1967 and during, what became to known as, the Six-Day War, Tel Aviv went on to occupy and later annex the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds and the Gaza Strip in a move not recognized by the international laws.

Israel carried out a self-proclaimed withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, but has been keeping the coastal sliver under recurrent attacks, notably the intense ones at the turn of 2009, which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians. Read more