Palestinians Reject Rice’s Proposal To Relocate Refugees To South America

G. Bush and Condoleezza Rice (hogwild.net)

The “Palestinian Papers,” a leak to the famous Arab TV-station Al-Jazeera of confidential documents containing the discussions and negotiations between Israel, the United States and The Palestinian National Authority provokes awe and shock to Palestinians as a proposal of Condoleezza Rice, at the time U.S. State Secretary, made in 2008 was now made public.

The scandal broke out over the last weekend, when Al-Jazeera began broadcasting a series of documents that contain the way the Palestinian leaders dealt with the Israelis in the name of their country fellows.

Yesterday, Palestinian leaders declared that Al-Jazeera has started a war against Palestinian National Authority, and alluded to a possible ban of it in the West Bank, while explaining that they never agreed to releasing the East Jerusalem in exchange for other concessions.

Palestinian Refugees (trippytraveller.com)

Now people in the Palestinian territories are appalled by an idea of Condoleezza Rice, who had proposed a solution for the very delicate problem of returning the refugees into the territory of Israel.

She proposed in 2008, while being the U.S. State Secretary, that the Palestinian refugees be taken to Chile and Argentina, rather than returning to their ancestral land in Israel.

Representatives of Palestinian diaspora said that the idea of shipping them across the Atlantic is a violation of their fundamental right to have a home.

The representative of Palestinians in Chile said that this idea forwarded by Condoleezza Rice shows that the Americans never negotiated correctly, and that they were always inclined to serve the interest of Israel.

The right of Palestinians to have a home is something they cannot give up.

Palestinian Refugees (mensa-barbie.blogspot.com)

Condoleezza Rice made this proposal in Berlin, on June 28, 2008, at a meeting between U.S., Israel and Palestinian Authority, and the minute of the discussion was disclosed to Al-Jazeera and linked to the electronic version of The Guardian.

Some 200,000 Christian Palestinians live in Chile, in a compact community built over several waves of immigration.

The people here said that if a Palestinian brother wishes to move to the South American state he/she is welcome, but it doesn’t mean that the United States should think of sending all Palestinian refugees just to release pressure from Israel’s shoulders.

Palestinian Refugee in Chile (globalpost.com)

The president of the Federation of Palestinian Organizations in Argentina also voiced concern that this plan violates U.N. affirmation that the refugees have a right to go home.

She called Condoleezza Rice’s idea a continuation of the ethnic cleansing policy, an attempt to drive people away from their homeland.

It is not clear whether the Bush Administration actually lobbied Chile and Argentina to take Palestinians in, since the authorities of these two countries have not responded yet.

Hillary Clinton, successor to Condoleezza Rice in the office of U.S. State Secretary, attempted to play down the disclosure made by Al-Jazeera last night by saying that relations between Israel and Palestinians are intricate and difficult to fathom.

A state department spokesman said however that the release will make problems even more complicated that they should be between the two people.

According to Israeli radio, a member of the Palestinian negotiation team recognized the documents as authentic.

The idea of relocating the population of an entire nation was disputed at the beginning of the 20^th century, when a home for the Jewish people all over the world was searched, and Uganda, or Madagascar were nominated until the same reason that drives the Palestinian toward their native land drove the Sionist leaders to choose their ancient homeland, creating the problem Condoleezza Rice tried so clumsily to find a solution to.