A statement by Hamas on Saturday said that the only way a peace deal could be achieved with Israel would be to allow the wholesale, actual return of the descendants of Arabs who fled Israel in 1948 to their original homes - even if the refugees themselves chose to resolve the situation in some other manner.
The Mecca Plan, approved as the official stance of the Arab League at a summit several weeks ago, calls for the "right of return" to be implemented prior to a final peace treaty with Israel, as well as an Israeli withdrawal to the 1948 borders. Israeli commentators have said that while the Mecca document demands that the refugee problem be solved, it does not necessarily require the resettlement of the Arabs in Israel; instead, they could be paid off and given citizenship elsewhere, or repatriated to the "Palestine" that would be created in Judea and Samaria.
But Hamas, the chief partner in the PA government, said that such solutions were unacceptable. "No one has the right to surrender or negotiate away the right of return," the official Hamas statement said. "Even if the refugees themselves would be willing, they have no right to surrender their status as refugees, and their decisions would be null and void," it said.
The Mecca Plan, approved as the official stance of the Arab League at a summit several weeks ago, calls for the "right of return" to be implemented prior to a final peace treaty with Israel, as well as an Israeli withdrawal to the 1948 borders. Israeli commentators have said that while the Mecca document demands that the refugee problem be solved, it does not necessarily require the resettlement of the Arabs in Israel; instead, they could be paid off and given citizenship elsewhere, or repatriated to the "Palestine" that would be created in Judea and Samaria.
But Hamas, the chief partner in the PA government, said that such solutions were unacceptable. "No one has the right to surrender or negotiate away the right of return," the official Hamas statement said. "Even if the refugees themselves would be willing, they have no right to surrender their status as refugees, and their decisions would be null and void," it said.