The Saudi government insists that the Palestinian refugees' right to return to their homeland on Israeli territory is beyond discussion while the United States has ignored this issue in their recently proposed "deal of the century" for settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said Tuesday
DOHA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd July, 2019) The Saudi government insists that the Palestinian refugees' right to return to their homeland on Israeli territory is beyond discussion while the United States has ignored this issue in their recently proposed "deal of the century" for settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
On June 25, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner presented the US plan for Israeli-Palestinian conflict settlement. The key proposal was to invest money in foreign territories the Palestinians are currently taking refuge on so that they never want to come back to their homeland in Israel in the future. The plan did not include any direct proposals on how the dialogue between Israel and Palestine could be relaunched.
"The government confirms the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their homeland, considering it fixed and established as well as not negotiable," the ministry tweeted citing the Cabinet's protocol.
The government also confirmed that Saudi Arabia was still among the major states that were providing assistance to Palestinian refugees.
Earlier in the day, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said in statement that the government of Saudi Arabia has donated $2 million to the agency.
For decades, Palestinians have sought recognition of their independent state in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Israeli government has refused to recognize Palestine as an independent political and diplomatic entity and continues to build settlements in the occupied areas, despite objections from the United Nations.
According to the UNRWA, Palestine refugees are defined as "persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict." Nowadays, there are about 5 million Palestine refugees in the world while approximately one third of them live in 58 recognized Palestine refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic.
