イスラエル／パレスチナ和平

寄並な・並なのでＮＹTimesも晟ります・Dr. Khalil Shikaki徭附についても菩「い討△襭・

July 14, 2003
Palestinian Mob Attacks Pollster Over Finding on 'Right of Return'
By JAMES BENNET


AMALLAH, West Bank, July 13 ！ A mob attacked an eminent Palestinian political scientist today as he prepared to announce a striking finding from a regionwide survey of Palestinian refugees: Only a small minority of them exercise a "right of return" to Israel as part of a peace agreement.

The political scientist, Dr. Khalil Shikaki, the director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research here, had intended today to discuss for the Arabic-language press the tensions and complexities of Palestinian society. Instead, struck, shoved and pelted with eggs but not seriously injured, he wound up starkly illustrating them.

From the wreckage of his office here, as workers swept up the broken glass and shampooed the carpet, Dr. Shikaki offered a political analysis of the attack. He said the dozens of rioters ！ who came prepared with their own news release, in Arabic and English ！ were hijacking his news conference as a signal to the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas.

"They are trying to send a message that the right of return is sacred, and that you who are negotiating are on notice," said Dr. Shikaki, who is a refugee himself.

Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, has accused Mr. Abbas of botching negotiations with Israel about a new American-backed peace plan. The two leaders have not spoken to each other since Mr. Abbas threatened to resign in an acrid argument last Monday night. "People are taking sides," Dr. Shikaki said. "The accusations are flying, and no one is being civil."

The rioters marched from Dr. Shikaki's office to Mr. Arafat's compound a few blocks away, where he received them, Palestinians here said. It was not clear if Mr. Arafat knew what they had done.

The attack also reflected a degree of lawlessness in Palestinian cities like this, where Palestinian security forces have yet to resume policing the streets but Israeli troops have become less pervasive.

The violence sprang from tension over the right of return, perhaps the deepest divide between Palestinians and Israelis.

Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war claim a right to live in what is now Israel. Israel rejects the claim, fearing that Palestinians hope to achieve by demography what they have failed to do by force of arms ！ erase Israel's Jewish character. Palestinian refugees and their descendants now number about four million, while Israel has roughly five million Jewish citizens and one million Arab citizens.

In a broad, detailed survey, Dr. Shikaki's researchers questioned 4,500 refugee families living in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jordan and Lebanon. More than 95 percent of them insisted that Israel recognize a right of return, accepting their position in principle, he said.

The researchers then presented five options, like financial compensation and moving to a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. The options were based on those negotiated but never formally endorsed by Israeli and Palestinian officials in January 2001, and they assumed that Israel recognized a right of return.

Only 10 percent demanded permanent residence in Israel, a proportion that decreased if the refugees were told that they would have to take Israeli citizenship or that their old homes were gone.