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Israel-Palestine
Abbas Asks Host Countries to Give Palestinians Citizenship
2005-07-12
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told Arab countries hosting Palestinian refugees to give them citizenship, insisting such a move would not compromise their right of return.
"Yasss! We deserve to have our cake and eat it, too!"
"I call upon every Arab government wishing to give citizenship (to Palestinian refugees) to do so. What is wrong with that?" he said in an interview with Dubai Television late Sunday. But the Palestinian Authority president insisted that obtaining citizenship in a host-country should not compromise the right to return to their homeland of which many Palestinian refugees dream. "This does not mean resettlement (of refugees). A Palestinian would return to his homeland whenever he is allowed, whether he carried an Arab or non-Arab citizenship," he said. "A fifth-generation Palestinian living in Chile also wishes to return when allowed ... It is an emotional matter, not related to citizenship," he added.
So lemme get this straight: You demand the right of return. You demand your own state. You demand citizenship in everybody else's state. You retain the right to explode without warning if you don't get your way.

I'd try and demand something similar for myself, but I can't think of anything that's quite that outlandish.
Posted by:Fred

#16  Those living in the West Bank before the 1967 war were already Jordanian citizens. There were two waves of refugees into Jordan, after the 1948 and '67 wars. Many were housed in refugee camps, but are now mostly integrated into Jordan. Zarqa was one of those refugee camps, and Abu Musab Zarqawi's is considered to be Jordanian-Palestinian, so I assume part of his came to Jordan proper in 1948.

The above does not apply to other Arab countries.
Posted by: ed   2005-07-12 21:57  

#15  King Hussein of Jordan booted out the Paleos (the Arafish Gang) because they tried to overthrow his government. The PLO and Black September were and are a bunch of thugs that destabilize any place they set up shop in. Remember Beruit when they arrived there after the debacle with King Hussein. Throwing money to the PA is a waste until they show something positive. So far it is just talk and booms. Their MO for negotiations is to demand demand demand. There is no give and take. A proletariat pox upon them.
Posted by: Al-Aska Paul   2005-07-12 21:28  

#14  Jennie's right on this one, Liberalhawk. If Jordan had offered citizenship, why are all those Palestinians still in UN refugee camps in Jordan (Ein el hellhole) and the West Bank, which was Jordanian territory until they lost it in 1967?

Thinking it over, I suspect Neutron Tom nailed it: blackmail.
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-07-12 21:16  

#13  Sorry to disagree with Lib"hawk" yet again (as almost always, LOL), but I would venture that Jordan has NOT offered the Paleos citizenship;
in fact, I think "Crown Prince" Abdullah must definitely refused to take back any Paleos if they went back to their original homes.
Never forget that it was Jordan that kicked out Yasser and the Paleos in the first place back in the early '70s.
In point of fact, if Jordan would take these people back and they'd go, we wouldn't have this problem right now--virtually all of them are Jordanian.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro   2005-07-12 18:19  

#12  A fifth-generation Palestinian living in Chile...

Is a Chilean, not a Palestinian.
Posted by: mojo   2005-07-12 16:21  

#11  Yur mistaking fear for interest LH. I see that a lot.
Posted by: Shamu   2005-07-12 14:30  

#10  Has any Arab state ever shown any interest in allowing the Paleos to settle there permanently?

Jordan.
Posted by: liberalhawk   2005-07-12 13:25  

#9  Redneck:

The palis are to a large extent, simply pawns used by the arab states to deflect criticism from their own conditions by their own people, and more recently, by the left in the west. In many ways, the last thing they'd want is a peaceful settlement between the palis and Israel.

Arab states dislike palis about as much as the Israelis dislike them.
Posted by: PlanetDan   2005-07-12 13:22  

#8  Has any Arab state ever shown any interest in allowing the Paleos to settle there permanently? I don't get the feeling that they're particularly welcome, and I can't say I'm surprised by that.
Posted by: WhiteCollarRedneck   2005-07-12 12:24  

#7  I have no problem with Paleos getting citizenship in the countries they're in. This is something those countries should have been making available since about 1948, and we've often remarked on the cynicism of the politix behind it. My problem's with wanting it all.

If you're a citizen of one country, drop your claim to the other. Dual citizenship doesn't work and should be abolished. Make your choice: if your new country isn't worth renouncing your old one, you probably didn't want to come to the new country in the first place. If you can't go back to the Olde Countrie, find another one that's better than where you landed.

If your grampaw got tossed from the family farm 50 or 60 years ago, the claim's probably lapsed by now. Get over it and get a job. What happened to my Grandaddy doesn't give me the right to beat up the descendants of the people he disagreed with, even if he did have a good time beating up their ancestors.

If you have your own state, which has been one of the harping points since 1967, that would seem to indicate you don't need somebody else's. A Paleostinian state would negate the right of return, even if the claim hadn't lapsed due to a. abandonment, and b. hostilities against Israel.
Posted by: Fred   2005-07-12 11:13  

#6  It's small-time blackmail. The Arab "hosts" are going to have to do something as penance once it's clear that there is no way in Hell that they'll give the Paleos citizenship.
Posted by: Neutron Tom   2005-07-12 10:35  

#5  He knows about Ein-El-Hellhole....
Posted by: Frank G   2005-07-12 10:29  

#4  Clearly, he thinks he has enough headaches already in-country, and despite the rhetoric about "right of return", doesn't need more nutters, steeped in sixty years of claustrophobic lunacy, on his hands.
Posted by: Mitch H.   2005-07-12 10:06  

#3  I agree this is a good thing. Abbas can deny it, but it makes if it makes it easier for Pals to assimilate where they are, it means less pressure for them to "return".
Posted by: liberalhawk   2005-07-12 10:01  

#2  I think that's fair, actually. The "Palestinian refugees" have been kept in limbo since 1948, unable to own property, get jobs, or vote. That is a major reason why they continue seething in their hellhole camps. If they are allowed to actually do something useful, a lot of that energy will be transformed, as it is with the educated Palestinian ex-pats who support their extended families back home.
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-07-12 06:37  

#1  "Legitimize the infection existing condition" - Vicente Fox Abu Mazen
Posted by: Frank G   2005-07-12 00:19  

00:01