Plo Slams Israel's 'Jewish State' Bill

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has strongly condemned an Israeli government decision to approve a bill that would enshrine Israel's status as a "Jewish state" in Israeli law.



In a Tuesday statement, the PLO's executive committee said the bill aimed to undermine the so-called "two-state solution."



The statement described the bill as a unilateral Israeli move aimed at abolishing a 1993 document of mutual recognition.



The bill is now expected to be presented to the Knesset (Israel's parliament) for approval.



Israel's sought-for status as a "Jewish state" was a point of contention during the last round of U.S.-mediated peace talks with the Palestinians.



Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly expressed his refusal to compromise on the longstanding Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a "Jewish state."



Palestinians fear that identifying Israel as such will cancel the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in historical Palestine, from which they were forced to flee when Israel was founded in 1948.



Peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators collapsed in April over Israel's refusal to release a number of Palestinian prisoners despite earlier pledges to do so.



The talks are ostensibly aimed at finding a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the roots of which date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-famous "Balfour Declaration," called for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."



Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.



Palestinians want a state of their own in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital.



For many Palestinians, the right to return to their ancestral homes in historical Palestine – as enshrined in UN General Assembly Resolution 194 – remains a key demand.



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