Tehran calls for Palestine 'referendum'

By Ahmet Dursun

ANKARA (AA) - Iran on Tuesday called for a “referendum” in the occupied Palestinian territories -- to include Muslims, Christians and Jews -- to decide on a viable system of governance.

The appeal came in a statement released by Iran's Foreign Ministry to mark the passage of 71 years since the Palestinian Nakba.

Meaning “The Catastrophe” in Arabic, the “Nakba” refers to the 1948 expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their villages in historical Palestine to make way for the new state of Israel.

“Palestinian land witnessed one of the most painful incidents in the history of Islam -- and the world -- on May 14, 1948,” the ministry said.

In the more than seven decades since, it added, the Palestinians had known neither peace nor tranquility.

The ministry went on to urge the international community to take appropriate measures to end Israel’s decades-long occupation.

It also called for a “referendum” -- in which Muslims, Christians and Jews would take part -- “in order to determine the type of their political system”.

The Palestine-Israel conflict dates back to 1917 when the British government, in the infamous Balfour Declaration, called for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”.