This fascinating interview by Al-Jazeera predated the Gaza withdrawal by a few weeks. Ultimately Libyan-born Avi Farhan, who came to Israel as a refugee, was not allowed to conduct his experiment: to stay on in his settlement of Elei Sinai and become a Palestinian citizen, just as an Arab from Um-Al-Fahm can be a citizen of Israel. Still, Farhan does put his finger on the nub of the Israel-Arab conflict: the refusal of the Arabs to live alongside the Jews.
"What I'm saying is that if we want real peace, all the Arab states have to participate alongside Europe, the US and Israel. The Arab states have to come to terms with what happened to the million Jews that once lived there. I suggest that each country in the Arab land absorb the Palestinians that live there, like in Ein Hilwah camp in Lebanon, for example, and have them live in the lands that we owned there. If they want to come back to Yaffa and Lydd and Ramla, then they want to kick the Jews out."
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