Every Palestinian has the right to see his homeland and the leadership will never give up the right of return, President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday.
"We want every Palestinian to see Palestine," he told a group of Palestinians from neighbouring Arab countries who were visiting the West Bank, dpa reported.
"The return is something that should be done on the ground, and not just a slogan. Palestine is for us, and if you were from the north, the centre or the south and lived anywhere in it, then you are in the homeland," Abbas said.
His statement came on the eve of what Palestinians call Nakba, now marked each year on the day when most of them fled their homes in 1948 following the creation of Israel.
According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), there are an estimated 4.8 million people registered as Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the occupied territories of West Bank and Gaza.
"The Palestinian leadership will never give up the right of return and that will be through practical steps and return to the homeland to end living in exile because the homeland is our final destination," Abbas said.