JORDAN: Jordan's King Abdullah meets with the speaker of the Israeli Knesset Dalia Itzik in Amman

King Abdullah of Jordan meets with the speaker of the Israeli Knesset Dalia Itzik as part of a peace campaign to promote the Arab peace initiative amongst the Israeli public. The campaign includes a number of meetings between King Abdullah and Palestinian and Israeli activists. King Abdullah of Jordan met with the speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Dalia Itzik, as part of a campaign to promote the Arab peace initiative amongst the Israeli public. The intensive campaign includes a series of meetings between the Jordanian monarch and Palestinian and Israeli activists. The Arab peace initiative, also known as the land-for-peace initiative, was re-launched at an Arab League summit in Riyadh in March, and offers Israel normal ties with all Arab states in return for a full withdrawal from the land it seized in the 1967 Middle East war, the creation of a Palestinian state and a "just solution" for Palestinian refugees. Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said he sees positive points in the Arab proposal, but Israel cited demographic and security concerns regarding the return of Palestinian refugees to their former homes in what is now Israel and the removal of Israeli settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank. Israelis fear that any mass return of refugees would threaten the Jewish character of their state. But Islamist group Hamas, which heads the Palestinian government, has called on Arab leaders not to compromise on the right of refugees to return.

ITN Source | April 20, 2007

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