Ma'an
sraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Palestinians to give up the right of return to their homes in what is now Israel as a precondition for a future peace deal.
Speaking on Sunday evening at a ceremony marking the 105th anniversary of the death of Zionist leader Theodore Herzl, Netanyahu said "They [Palestinians] must abandon their demand to settle the descendents of Palestinian refugees in Israel and gradually 'eat away' at the State of Israel after a peace agreement is signed," according to Israel’s Ynet news website.
...Netanyahu has also demanded that Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish state,” an indirect way of foreclosing the right of return, since Israel asserts that its Jewish nature is based on a Jewish majority, a situation that by definition prohibits the refugees’ return.
...Palestinians argue that the right of return is both a collective and individual right which, even if Palestinian and Israeli negotiators take it up, cannot legally be forfeited on the behalf of the individual refugees.
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