Friday 29 March 2024 
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Abbas to propose large-scale land swap

Abbas will propose exchanging 6.5 percent of the Palestinian territory with Israel, more than triple the amount put forward in a previous land-swap initiative.

A Palestinian official says PA head Mahmoud Abbas will propose exchanging 6.5 percent of the Palestinian territory with Israel, more than triple the amount put forward in a previous land-swap initiative.

The official close to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) told Middle East Eye on Sunday that Abbas would make the proposal during US President Donald Trump's forthcoming visit to the West Bank.

“The Palestinian side will be presenting a new vision which is quite detached from that of the majority of the Palestinian people. This vision is based on exchanging a lot of Palestinian lands," the official said.

“Previous discussions about a Palestinian-Israeli settlement revolved around the exchange of only 1.9 percent of the lands, but now we are talking about more than triple that amount,” he noted.

During the 2008 Israeli-Palestinian talks, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert floated the controversial idea of land swaps, offering parts of the occupied territories in exchange for keeping major Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat said Olmert wanted 6.5 percent of the West Bank in exchange for the occupied territories equivalent to 5.8 percent of the West Bank.

A source at the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said the 2008 negotiations failed as the Palestinians only agreed to exchange a much smaller percentage of its lands.

Israel occupied the eastern part of al-Quds (‘ Jerusalem’) during the 1967 war and later annexed it, declaring the whole city its indivisible capital despite an outcry from the international community. Palestinians want the city as the capital of their future independent state.

Abbas met with Trump in Washington in early May, urging his American counterpart to resume Israeli-Palestinian talks under the 2008 offer made by Olmert.




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