RAMALLAH, West Bank, 16 May 2005 — Palestinians marked the blackest day in their history yesterday with warnings that there would be no Middle East peace until they are handed independence and the plight of their refugees is solved.
“Peace, stability and security in the Middle East can only be achieved with a just solution to our cause, based on the international resolutions, which stress our people’s right to an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital,” Abbas said in comments broadcast by Palestinian media.
Abbas also said that Hamas needed to be part of the political process, after talk of a delay to summer legislative polls in which the Islamist group may fare well.
Abbas made his comments in Japan, where he arrived on a three-day visit aimed at cementing Tokyo’s strong financial support for the Middle East peace process.
An Abbas aide last week openly mulled the idea of postponing a July legislative election amid fears in the Palestinians’ ruling Fatah party that Hamas could capitalize on recent local poll successes. Israel has said a Hamas victory could make it re-think its planned pullout from the Gaza Strip.
“I think it is a very good move to involve Hamas and other groups in the political process because by engaging them to solve problems politically, there will be no need to (resort) to military conflict,” Abbas told the Japanese agency Kyodo News. Asked about Fatah’s chances in the election, Abbas said, “It is up to the people to decide.”
Fifty-seven years on from the foundation of the state of Israel, an event known by Palestinians as the Naqba (Arabic for catastrophe), their leader Mahmoud Abbas said regional stability was dependent on a just solution to his people’s cause.
Peace was also dependent on “achieving a just and agreed solution to the refugees issue,” he added in reference to Palestinians who fled their homes or were forced out of them on the creation of Israel.
Abbas is himself a refugee, born in the town of Safed in what is now northern Israel. The fate of the original refugees and their descendents, who are scattered throughout the occupied territories and neighboring Arab countries, has been one of the thorniest issues of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The Islamist movement Hamas stressed that the right of return was inalienable. “Our people are committed to returning to their villages and no one outside can negate this right,” it said.
Demonstrations were held across the occupied territories and in refugee camps around the region. In Gaza City, several thousand protesters gathered in the center of the city with banners demanding the right of return. Similar demonstrations were held in the Lebanon camps of Ain El-Hilweh and Beddawi.
