Palestinians and Israeli Jews willing to compromise - even if their leaders are not. Return to sanity?
Poll says Jewish settlers will leave if paid
news.ft.com
By Sharmila Devi in Jerusalem
Financial Times
Published: July 23 2003 16:19
Last Updated: July 23 2003 16:19
Seventy-four per cent of Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be willing to leave their homes in return for compensation from the Israeli government as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians, according to an opinion poll published on Wednesday.
The poll's findings contrast with the harsh rhetoric of settler leaders, who have vowed to resist strenuously any attempts to evacuate them. Under the US-backed road map to peace, Israel is supposed to freeze new building construction in the territories occupied since the 1967 war and dismantle unauthorised outposts erected since March 2001.
Ariel Sharon, Israeli prime minister, has provoked strong opposition from rightwingers with a pledge to dismantle mostly uninhabited outposts but the poll shows he has the backing of 66 per cent of settlers who believe they should be removed. The Israeli group Peace Now interviewed 1,100 settlers by telephone and found also that 44 per cent think the Palestinians deserve a state.
About 200,000 settlers live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel occupied in 1967. Their eventual fate would be subject to final negotiations under the road map, which sets out steps leading to a Palestinian state by 2005.
The Peace Now poll echoes recent Palestinian surveys in demonstrating an apparent willingness to compromise for peace. Only around 10 per cent of the Palestinians who became refugees when the state of Israel was declared in 1948 want to return to Israel, according to polls published last week by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research. However, many Palestinian leaders say they will not give up a right of return.
There is growing Palestinian impatience with Mahmoud Abbas, prime minister, who is due to hold talks with President George W. Bush in Washington on Friday. Mr Abbas is expected to seek pressure on Israel to release Palestinian prisoners captured during the intifada. Militant groups have warned their ceasefire rests on the fate of the some 6,000 prisoners. Meanwhile, Mr Abbas may face a confidence vote in the Palestinian Legislative Council if his trip to the US is deemed a failure. |
