The comments by Khalil al-Hayya came amid a stalemate in months of cease-fire talks. But it's unlikely Israel would consider such a scenario.

A top Hamas political official told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.

    • @[email protected]English
      3•2 months ago

      That’s not what I said. I specifically said that there were certainly Jewish refugees; especially from Egypt, Iraq, and Syria. Besides Syria, yes as far as I can tell they can freely return. That doesn’t mean they would want to or that they should. UNHCR allows for repatriation for refugees, however as far as I’m aware the vast majority of Jewish refugees chose to live elsewhere due to persecution.

      However, saying all 850,000 Jewish people from the exodus were refugees is simply not true. Many voluntarily left due to pull factors such as the desire to fulfill Zionism or finding a better economic status and a secure home in either Israel, Europe, or the Americas. Many were able to sell their homes and move to where they wanted to.

      Historian Tom Segev stated: “Deciding to emigrate to Israel was often a very personal decision. It was based on the particular circumstances of the individual’s life. They were not all poor, or ‘dwellers in dark caves and smoking pits’. Nor were they always subject to persecution, repression or discrimination in their native lands. They emigrated for a variety of reasons, depending on the country, the time, the community, and the person.”