‘Right of return’: Key pin worn by Palestinian president angers Israel

Israel has lashed out after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wore a small lapel pin in the shape of a key during his recorded address delivered Thursday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

For Palestinians, the key symbolizes the mass displacement of 1948 and embodies the demand for the “Right of Return” to their lands.

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But Israel, however, claims it is “an unmistakable symbol” of Israeli erasure.

The imagery of the key is an ode to all those Palestinians who carried the keys for their homes – while having to abandon them during the forced displacement – in the hope that they will return to find their homes intact.

Israel’s foreign ministry posted on X that the gesture represents “a desire to destroy Israel,” urging Arab states that host Palestinians to grant them citizenship, a stance reflecting Israel’s continued rejection of the Palestinian right of return.

“It is long overdue for Arab states to grant citizenship to the descendants of those who left in 1948. Abbas’s ‘key’ is the old PLO plan: two states for one Palestinian people and the destruction of the Jewish State. This will not happen,” the ministry said in its post.

In his address, Abbas called for disarming Hamas, ending the ongoing conflict, and establishing lasting peace to ensure coexistence between the Israel and Palestine.

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