Netanyahu: Palestinians must give up right of return for peace

Palestinians don't have to accept Israel as a Jewish state but they must renounce all claims to its lands, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday. Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said, "we are not looking for the Palestinians to ratify our identity, our heritage and our connection to this land," Israeli broadcaster Arutz Sheva reported. "We are demanding from them that at the end of the negotiations, they will renounce all their claims, including national claims, and that they recognize the national rights of the Jewish people in the State of Israel," he said. Alluding to demands by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that Palestinians have the "right to return" to their former homeland, Netanyahu said Palestinian recognition of Israel "as our national state is an integral part of their recognition that there are no national demands and no national rights in the state of Israel." "We ascribe importance to the unity of Jerusalem and, of course, to the cancellation of the right of return," he added.