Israel's Lieberman calls for with land, people swap for peace deal

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said yesterday that he supports a two-state solution with land and population swaps on both sides, Israeli media reported.

Addressing a panel at the Munich International Security Conference, Lieberman said: “A two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must include exchanges of people and land to ensure the two sides are completely separated.”

I believe that what is necessary for us is to keep the Jewish state.

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“My biggest problem is that today on the table we have a proposal [which] will establish a very homogenic Palestinian state without even one Jew and we will become a binational state with more than 20 per cent of the population Palestinians,” he said.

“I think the basic principle of a solution must include [the] exchange of land and population. It does not make sense to create one homogenic Palestinian state and a bi-national state of Israel.”

The land swap proposal stipulates that Palestinian towns in Israel near the border, particularly the Triangle area, could be transferred to a future Palestinian state, while illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank would become part of Israel.

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