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Refugees Left Out of Palestinian Vote
 Yehya Shatarat punched his fist into his hand as he watched satellite television pictures of Palestinians in the West Bank voting for a successor to the late Yasser Arafat. "Mahmoud Abbas is definitely the winner and he will destroy us completely because he sold out the Palestinian cause to Israel and America a long time ago," said the 28-year-old refugee, referring to the Palestinian who is expected to easily win the presidential race. Abbas fulfilled Shatarat's prediction, with exit polls showing him winning handily.Shatarat wasn't the only one in the camps scattered across the Middle East who expressed frustration at having no say in choosing the leaders who will sit down with Israel to decide the fate of Palestinian refugees. Israel flatly rejects allowing hundreds of thousands of refugees and their descendants to return to homes abandoned in the 1948 and 1967 Middle East wars, saying that would destroy the country as a Jewish majority state. A future settlement is likely to be a combination of financial compensation for those barred from returning and resettlement in the West Bank, Gaza or in the West. Posted by: Fred 2005-01-10 |
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