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01/13/2005:

"Jordan's Guests, Deeply Palestinian and Deeply Skeptical"

AQAA REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan, Jan. 11 - A ragged banner dangling outside the central bus station of this squalid refugee camp outside Amman underscores the trepidation many Palestinians here feel about the landslide election of Mahmoud Abbas as president of the Palestinian Authority on Sunday.

"The right of return," the banner says, "is sacred."

For over half a century, Palestinians - especially in refugee camps like this one in Jordan, with 180,000 residents - have said the right of return to their former homes in what is today Israel is nonnegotiable. Israel rejects such a huge immigration, saying it would compromise the Jewish character of its nation.

With the election of Mr. Abbas, a moderate who is expected to negotiate aggressively with the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, many here fear the loss of this most cherished demand.

"This camp is full of people who have lost blood in the struggle, and they will not forget," said Haitham Abu Saeed, leader of the Baqaa Youth and Sports Club. "So neither Abbas nor anyone else can give away Jerusalem or the right of return."

Mr. Abbas's election was well received by world leaders. And many Palestinians see him as a means to breaking the stalemate after four years of the intifada. But residents here in Baqaa are far less hopeful.

With Jordanian passports and homes now made of brick and plaster rather than the tents they once lived in, Palestinians here say they stand to lose the most if a final settlement drops the right of return.

"There's a general impression that Yasir Arafat was adamant on the right of return but the others around him were not," said Mustafa Hamarneh, director of the Center for Strategic Studies at Jordan University. "This is the last card the Palestinians have, and if they give it up, their chapter will be closed."

Mr. Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, has asserted his commitment to keeping the issue of repatriating Palestinians a priority. But in negotiations after the peace framework signed in Oslo in 1993, no agreement on the issue was reached.

In 2000, President Clinton suggested guidelines to end the conflict that called for Palestinian refugees to be given a choice between being rehabilitated in the country they are now in, moving to the new Palestinian state, resettling in a third country or moving to Israel if Israel agreed. Israel accepted the guidelines with reservations; Mr. Arafat rejected it.
Full Article: nytimes.com