Meretz MK Yossi Beilin on Thursday called on European countries to declare how many Palestinian refugees and their descendants they would be willing to absorb as part of any future peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
"It is important that we know now how many Palestinian refugees [third] countries are willing to absorb, so that when we get to the critical moment [of a peace agreement] we will be prepared for such an eventuality, and be able to carry it out," Beilin said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.
The super-sensitive issue of dealing with the Palestinian refugees, has been largely untouched in Israel for years, due to the Palestinian demand for the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees to Israel which the Jewish State flatly rejects as a move which will indelibly alter the character of the country.
"We want to put this issue on the table, and not keep it under the table, and deal with it not tomorrow but today so that we can work on an agreed upon solution," said MK Amira Dotan of the ruling Kadima Party, who co-chairs a Knesset committee on the issue together with MK Benny Elon of the rightist National Union-National Religious Party. "We want to push the buttons so that the dynamics can begin," Dotan said.
In contrast to Beilin, who shares the view of the international community that a solution to the refugee problem can only happen after a peace accord is reached between Israelis and Palestinians, Elon believes that the issue of Palestinian refugees can - and should - be dealt with now, especially since no peace agreement is in sight in the foreseeable future.
"It has been a big mistake not to deal with the issue of the Palestinian refugees," said Elon, who advocates dealing with the issue head-on for humanitarian reasons.
A cornerstone of the hawkish parliamentarian's recent diplomatic initiative includes dismantling the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the mammoth UN body that deals with Palestinian refugees and their descendants, and resettling the Palestinian refugees into countries outside of Israel, in keeping with long-standing Israeli government policy that an influx of refugees would demographically damage Israel's character as a Jewish state.