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Abbas Hints at No "Right of Return" to Israel
(Reuters) Dan Williams - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made a rare if symbolic concession to Israel on Thursday, saying he had no permanent claim on the town where he lived as a child in 1948 before the Jewish state's founding. Speaking to Israel's Channel 2 television, Abbas was asked whether he wanted to live in Safed, his boyhood town in what had been British-ruled Palestine. "I visited Safed before once. But I want to see Safed. It's my right to see it, but not to live there." "I believe that (the) West Bank and Gaza is Palestine and the other parts (are) Israel." Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said: "If he wants to see Safed, or anywhere else in Israel, for that matter, we would happily show him anywhere. But there has to be a desire to move forward on the peace process."