Palestinian refugees prefer to settle in own state, survey finds

3.00pm - By ERIC SILVER

A mob of about 100 Palestinian refugees stormed the office of a Ramallah polling organisation on Sunday to stop it publishing a survey showing that five times as many refugees would prefer to settle permanently in a Palestinian state rather than return to their old homes in what is now Israel.

The protesters pelted Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, with eggs, smashed computers and assaulted the nine staff members on duty. A woman worker was sent home last night after being treated in hospital for her injuries. "This is a message for everyone not to tamper with our rights," one of the rioters said.

Dr Shikaki, a leading West Bank political scientist, was undeterred. He said he was still putting the survey results on the centre's website and seeking the widest possible exposure.

"These people," he said, "had no idea what the results were. They were sold disinformation."

The poll, conducted among 4,500 refugees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Jordan, was the first ever to ask where they would want to live, if Israel recognised a right of return.

Only 10 per cent of the refugees chose Israel, even if they were allowed to live there with Palestinian citizenship; 54 per cent opted for the Palestinian state; 17 per cent wanted to be absorbed in Jordan or Lebanon, and 2 per cent in other countries that were ready to admit them. Another 13 per cent rejected all these options, preferring to sit it out and wait for Israel to disappear, while 2 per cent didn't know.

The future of more than three million refugees is critical to any chance of a lasting peace. It was one of the unresolved issues that caused the July, 2000, Camp David summit to break down.

Palestinian leaders insist that the refugees must have a "right of return" to the towns and villages from which they fled or were expelled in the 1948 war. Israelis counter that a mass repatriation would undermine the Jewish identity of their state.

Dr Shikaki hailed his survey findings as "a win-win situation" for all the parties involved.

"The refugees get the right of return. Given the small number who want to go back, Israel could afford to recognise the right of return without taking any risk with the demographic balance of the state. And the survey shows that the overwhelming majority of refugees have a strong national identity after 55 years of exile and want to live in a Palestinian state."

The survey coincided with the start of a three-day visit to London by Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister. Israel welcomes the talks as a chance to mend fences after a rocky year in which Jack Straw, the British Foreign Secretary, likened Israel to Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Israeli officials said yesterday that Mr Sharon would be urging Tony Blair - and other European leaders - to downgrade their relations with Yasser Arafat. He argues that honouring Mr Arafat undermines his more pragmatic Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), and thus the hope of negotiating a compromise peace.

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