Hamas: No Recognition of Israel

While Zahar’s “liberate the lands” comment appears to refer to future violence against Israel, his refugee discussion also poses a threat to Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. Israel has pointed out that should millions of Palestinians enter Israel after a two-state solution is realized, Israel’s demographic balance as the nation state for the Jewish people would be threatened. 

To this day, there are Palestinian “refugees” who live in camps in Arab nations with hopes of someday “returning” to territory they claim in Israel, which they left during Arab conflict against Israel. This contrasts with many refugees from other conflicts around the world that have been absorbed into their new nations.

Even Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas—in the so-called “Palestine Papers” leaked to Al Jazeera and also published in the UK’s The Guardian—expressed an understanding of the impossibility of millions of Palestinians flooding Israel after a peace deal. According to The Guardian, Abbas said privately in a meeting, “On numbers of refugees, it is illogical to ask Israel to take 5 million, or indeed 1 million. That would mean the end of Israel.” Israel has repeatedly called for the Palestinians to absorb their own “refugees” into a future Palestinian state, just as Israel absorbed Jewish refugees.