MOSCOW (AA): Reported Israeli plans to relocate Palestinians to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula would have “catastrophic” consequences, said the spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday.
Provocative statements about possible relocation fuel radical sentiments and mutual bitterness, threatening to further prolong the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Maria Zakharova said at a news conference in Moscow, responding to Anadolu.
“If such plans are implemented, the consequences of mass displacement of people will be catastrophic and will only worsen the situation in the region. And there will be disastrous consequences for both Palestinians and Israelis, and for the region as a whole,” she warned.
This week an Israeli ministry draft proposal to transfer the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people to Sinai surfaced, drawing immediate denunciation. Israeli authorities called the document a hypothetical “concept paper” rather than a concrete plan.
Zakharova added: “It is strange to hear that the proposal to forcibly deport the Palestinian people from their ancestral lands is put forward by those who consider themselves heirs to the idea of reviving the Jewish state on its historical territory.”
“I would like to emphasize once again that we see the entirety of the reasons that led to the aggravation of the problem. And we are saying that it is necessary not to aggravate it, but to take those concrete steps that will lead to a resolution of the situation,” she stressed.
She also said Russian officials “will not tire of repeating” that a lasting Palestinian-Israeli settlement is only possible on the condition of the establishment of an independent Palestinian State within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, coexisting peacefully and securely with Israel.
