Muhammad Rashid, former advisor to Yasser Arafat: Despite fiery slogans, we all knew that we would have to give it up to get a Palestinian State; Arafat regretted rejecting Clinton’s proposal, called it “missed opportunity”
In an interview on Al-Arabiyah Network (Saudi Arabia), Muhammad Rashid, former financial advisor to Yasser Arafat, discussed the 2000 Camp David Summit between U.S. President Clinton, Palestinian Authority President Arafat, and Israeli Prime Minister Edud Barak.
Rashid said that the independent Palestinian state discussed at the summit was accepted at the expense of the Palestinian right of return to the 1948 borders. According to Rashid, the talks focused instead on a solution for Palestinian refugees, allowing them to return and become citizens of a Palestinian state, receive compensation for their homes, or obtain citizenship in a third country.
He said the right to return to homes in the pre-1948 borders was never on the table at Camp David.