Friday, July 18, 2003
This article hits the recent riot at the release of a poll that showed only 10% of Palestinians would care to excercise a right of return, it also discusses problems other researchers and those advocating moderate lines have had to face. Also mentioned are successful attempts to supress politically incorrect news, such as the intimidation of foreign news services to shelve footage of post 9/11 dancing in the streets.
Palestinian intellectuals feeling pressured to toe the line
A furious mob smashed glass and furniture, trashed potted plants and pelted the center's director, Khalil Shikaki, with eggs on Sunday.
His crime? Publishing the results of an opinion poll of Palestinian refugees that suggested only 10 percent of them would exercise the long-sought "right of return" to their former homes in what is now Israel if that right were granted.
Shikaki was only the latest Palestinian intellectual to learn that deviating from the Palestinian Authority's political line can be dangerous. [...]
Impression: We learned (or had confirmed) from the Eason Jordan fiasco that one can never completely trust news from totalitarian states, particularly violent totalitarian states like the PA. Worse, the news services hire locals to do much of their reporting and photography, putting people, even if they had a desire to be impartial, are direectly under the gun to toe the political line - and that's who the "news" is coming from.
Further, unless the central authority can do something to protect moderate voices from physical harm, those voices will never have the ability to shape opinion, or even tell the truth.
