The PLO official said that US officials must present an acceptable form of recognition, but what is currently being proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is unacceptable.

“If that was one of the main obstacles in US Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts, then the active and determined Kerry has to overcome it without embarrassing Abbas or weakening any possible agreement between Palestinians and Israelis,” Amro said.

More than 760,000 Palestinians — estimated today to number 4.8 million including their descendants — were forced into exile or driven out of their homes in the conflict surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948.

Palestinian officials have repeatedly said that recognizing the concept of Israel as a “Jewish state” is unnecessary and threatens the rights of nearly 1.3 million Palestinian citizens of Israel who remained in their homes during the displacement of the majority of the Palestinian population.

The right of Palestinian refugees to return to their land is enshrined in article 11 of UN resolution 194.

The internationally recognized Palestinian territories of which the West Bank and East Jerusalem form a part have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.