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Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Flash90)
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| By Israel Insider staff October 10, 2007 |
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Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced on Wednesday the exact square mileage he said is required for a future Palestinian state, marking his most specific demand so far in the negotiations process.
"We have 6,205 square kilometers [2,400 square miles] in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip," Abbas told Palestine TV, according to the Associated Press. "We want it as it is."
PA negotiating documents outline the Palestinian demands as including all of the Gaza Strip, Judea, Samaria, east Jerusalem and small areas along the West Bank frontier, which is more than Israel will likely be willing to give.
The PA's leadership has also not yet proven that they can sufficiently combat Hamas' presence in the West Bank, making it even harder to gain support in Israel for sweeping land concessions. Leading analysts say that Hamas cells are just as strong in the region as Fatah, but that Hamas militants are more motivated to seize control than their rival counterparts.
Israel won Judea, Samaria, among other territory, in the 1967 war, land that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is using largely as a bargaining chip. Olmert would likely agree to ceding 92-94 percent of the West Bank in order to retain large settlement blocs.
According to the Associated Press, Abbas' hardening public stance is tougher than what he is actually offering in negotiations with Olmert. Aides close to the chairman said that he was actually willing to exchange blocs of the West Bank for an equal amount of Israeli land inside the green line.
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