Israel will allow less than 0.5 per cent of the Palestinian community in Libya to return

Ramallah: Only 300 out of the approximately 72,000 Palestinians living in trouble-torn Libya, or less than 0.5 per cent, will be allowed to return to the Palestinian Territories by Israel, the Prime Minister of the Jewish State has said.

A senior official of the Palestinian General Authority’s (PA) Civil Affairs section told Gulf News on condition of anonymity that a plea had been submitted earlier by the authority to the Israeli government to allow the Palestinian community living in Libya, whose members do not hold the necessary identity cards to allow them into the Palestinian Territories, to return to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The official said the Israelis had responded that they were willing to allow 300 of the Palestinians living in Libya to enter the Palestinian Territories. He added that Palestinian officials in Ramallah have been closely coordinating with the Palestinian Embassy in Libya and had found that Palestinians in Libya numbered over 72,000.

Addressing a press conference late on Wednesday with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that following the violence in Libya, he had received a personal request from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to allow the Palestinians to leave Libya and return to their homeland.

“So Israel will enable 300 Palestinians to enter the West Bank,” Netanyahu said.

He stressed that the Israeli move was made as a “humanitarian gesture” because the Palestinians were under threat in Libya and there was concern for their safety.

“The move is a mark of our desire for good neighbourliness and peace,” he said.

The Palestinian official said the PA has been carefully monitoring the safety of the Palestinian community in Libya in coordination with Egyptian and Tunisian authorities. He said the PA has also contacted several parties, including the Quartet and other international institutions, to press Israel to approve the return of the Palestinian community of Libya to the Palestinian Territories.

The official explained that unless the approval of the Israeli authorities was secured, none of the Palestinians from Libya would be able to return home as they do not hold identity cards which would enable them to cross the Allenby Bridge.

Criticising Netanyahu’s “humanitarian gesture”, the official said the number he is willing to approve was less than 0.5 per cent of the total number of the Palestinians in Libya.

He said Palestinians were extremely unhappy with the Israeli decision and those of the community residing abroad were disappointed that their leadership could not help save them during these extremely critical conditions in which their safety was on the line.

Even if the Israeli proposal is accepted, the PA official added, it would be difficult to chose who would comprise the 300 people to return. There was no way to come to a satisfactory conclusion for the Palestinians in Libya under any circumstances.

The Palestinian leadership will study the Israeli decision and join forces with countries willing to give it a helping hand to put pressure on the Israeli government to allow all the Palestinians in Libya to return to the Palestinian Territories, the official said.

Rubbishing the reasons given by the Israelis, including security concerns of the State of Israel, the official said these were all excuses as the issue was purely a humanitarian one and did not have anything to do with jeopardising Israeli security. The Libyan evacuees would return to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, he added, where the Palestinian Authority has already finalised plans to provide them with a suitable living.