Begin on 'Legitimate Rights'

Gen. ( res. ) Shlomo Gazit attended the Cabinet meeting that was held when PM Menachem Begin returned from Camp David.

At the meetings, Minister of Transport Haim Landau asked PM Begin how he agreed that Israel would sign a document in which Israel recognized "the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people."

In his column this week, Gazit shared PM Begin's reply:

"We had with us at Camp David an expert of international law, one of the best and finest in the world [AL: Barak]....And what did this great expert in international law tell me?

He said: Mr. Prime Minister, yourself are an attorney. Would it be conceivable to you not to recognize the "legitimate" rights? What is the meaning of the word "legitimate"? Yes, simply "legal" rights. And is it conceivable not to recognize legal rights? The dispute between us and the Palestinians is on their demand for rights that at not legitimate.'"

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