RAMALLAH, June 29 (JMCC) - Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has unhashed an old plan advocating the forced 'transfer' of Palestinian communities out of Israel and into a future Palestinian state.

In an article published in the Jerusalem Post, Lieberman argued that only by revoking Israeli Arabs of their citizenship and transferring them to a Palestinian state, could peace be made between the two peoples.

Lieberman, the leader of the ultra-right party Yisrael Beiteinu, has been heavily criticized for his stances vis-a-vis the Palestinians. Of particular consideration, was legislation Lieberman has pushed aimed at Arab-Israelis, which would force citizens to take a loyalty oath to the so-called 'Jewish State.'

True peace, the foreign minister claimed, would come only with land swaps, or “an exchange of populated territories to create two largely homogeneous states, one Jewish Israeli and the other Arab Palestinian”. He added that under his plan “those Arabs who were in Israel will now receive Palestinian citizenship”...

...He has spoken repeatedly in the past about drawing the borders in a way to forcibly exchange Palestinian communities in Israel for the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

But under orders from Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, he has kept a relatively low profile on the conflict’s larger issues since his controversial appointment to head the foreign ministry more than a year ago.

In early 2009, Mr Lieberman, who lives in the West Bank settlement of Nokdim, upset his own supporters by advocating the creation of “a viable Palestinian state”, though he has remained unclear about what it would require in practice.

Mr Lieberman’s revival of his “population transfer” plan -- an idea he unveiled six years ago -- comes as the Israeli leadership has understood that it is “isolated like never before”, according to Michael Warschawski, an Israeli analyst...

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