Fayyad raps Israel on birthday bash

By · May 12, 2008

The Palestinian Authority prime minister rebuked Israelis for celebrating their 60th Independence Day.

“I say to the Israeli people in particular, how can you celebrate while the people of Palestine are groaning
under your settlements, crimes of your settlers, siege of your state and the occupation practices of your army?” Salam Fayyad said in a speech Tuesday to P.A. officials and foreign dignitaries.

Palestinians call the founding of the Jewish state in 1948 the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” in which
hundreds of thousands of their people were dispossessed.

Such views, Israelis point out, overlook the Arab world’s culpability in rejecting a United Nations proposal to partition the then British-ruled territory into Jewish and Arab states.

Fayyad voiced hope that current Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would address the refugee problem and other outstanding issues.

“Celebrations are meaningless unless we celebrate a just, durable peace together,” he said.

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