The Egyptian President Mr Hosni Mubarak has warned Israel against considering the mass eviction of Palestinians as a solution to the Mideast crisis.
It will be the biggest danger for Israel if you did it
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"Don't start thinking that you can expel the Palestinians out to Jordan or anywhere else. It will be the biggest danger for Israel if you did it," Mr Mubarak said in an interview broadcast on Israeli television last night.
"I'm drawing your attention to this and advising you for the sake of peace and stability, don't let this be your thinking at all."
An opinion poll published in Israel this week showed 46 per cent of respondents backed transferring Palestinians out of the West Bank and Gaza Strip as an acceptable option to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The term transfer was used instead of expulsion because it includes the idea propounded by ultra-nationalist Israelis that many Palestinians would quit the occupied territories voluntarily.
Political parties promoting transfer collected under four per cent of Israeli votes in elections last year, but they have had ministers in government and openly discuss the idea, which many Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza publicly back.
Israel's Arab minority, which descends from Palestinians who did not leave their communities in 1948, is also worried about rightwing rhetoric calling for their expulsion.
Arab Israelis form roughly 18 per cent of Israel's population of over six million. Palestinians seeking an independent state in the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip number more than three million.