RAMALLAH, West Bank, 14 July 2003 — Dozens of furious Palestinian refugees wrecked a local pollster’s office yesterday to stop him releasing a survey showing most Palestinian refugees were ready to abandon claims to return to what is today Israel. Dozens of refugees pelted Palestinian academic Khalil Shikaki with eggs when they burst into his office, overturning tables and smashing windows, moments before he was to release the results of his controversial survey on Palestinian refugees.
Shikaki, whose think tank monitors the Palestinian political pulse through periodic surveys, found that “the vast majority” of refugees were willing to accept monetary compensation in lieu of a return to homes and land they abandoned or were forced to flee when Israel was established in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
“This is a message for everyone not to tamper with our rights,” one angry refugee said as others trashed the offices of Shikaki’s Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. Palestinian police intervened to calm tempers, but Shikaki, his shirt stained by egg yolk, aborted the press conference he had called at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah to announce the results of his survey. “They did not even see the results,” Shikaki told Reuters as he mopped egg from his face. He was not hurt.
Shikaki said in earlier comments to reporters that his poll found most refugees scattered across the Middle East would be prepared to accept compensation and a new life in a Palestinian state and did not expect to return to their former homes.
Around 700,000 Palestinians became refugees when Israel was established in 1948. Their numbers have swelled to over four million living in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Israel opposes the return of the refugees which it says would reduce the Jews to a minority in the Jewish state, where there are currently some five million Jews and one million Arabs.
The refugees and many Palestinians publicly say there can be no peace with Israel until Israel recognizes the refugees’ right of return. The issue of refugees is so emotive that it was left until the final stage of negotiations when Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed the Oslo peace accords in 1993.
Few Palestinian politicians have been prepared to suggest the refugees waive the right of return. One official, Sari Nusseibeh, lost popularity among Palestinians when he suggested the right of return was not realistic.
Meanwhile, armed members of the militant Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades threatened to renew anti-Israeli attacks if Israel failed to release Palestinian prisoners as they marched through the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday. Volleys of gunfire were fired into the air as around 50 gunmen who were mostly wearing masks trooped through the center of Nablus, an AFP correspondent reported.
Messages were also voiced over loud speakers demanding an “end to Israeli aggression against our people.” “We will respect the hudna (truce) if the Israelis release the prisoners and pull out of the Palestinian areas,” they added.
In another development, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov held talks with Yasser Arafat yesterday, snubbing calls by Israel to boycott the veteran Palestinian leader. Ivanov said that Russia, one of the four co-sponsors of the road map for peace, wanted to see both the Palestinians and Israel fulfill the commitments laid down in the plan which aims to form an independent Palestinian state by 2005.
“We call on both sides to implement obligations in the road map which will lead to a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel,” Ivanov told reporters after the meeting. Arafat thanked Russia for its support and repeated calls for international observers to be sent to the region. “We need to speed up the process of sending international observers in order to implement the road map,” he said.
The meeting came amid a campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to persuade foreign governments to boycott Arafat, accusing him of trying to undermine his own Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who is leading the Palestinians in ongoing peace talks. Sharon was quoted as saying in an interview with the leading Norwegian daily Aftenposten yesterday: “There has to be a common approach to remove Arafat from all positions. There is no secret that Yasser Arafat does what he can to work against Mahmoud Abbas.”
