Palestinian Rights

Yesterday an angry mob showed up at the office of a research organization in Ramallah to protest the release of a survey showing that 90% of Palestinian refugees don’t want to "return" to Israel [coverage here]. Some of the protesters, not content to shout and jeer, broke into and vandalized the pollster’s office. Comments reportedly made by Palestinians at the scene included "this is a warning not to tamper with our rights" and "we are here to announce that the right of return is a sacred right."

It would seem that according to a certain element of Palestinian society, Palestinians have rights, but those rights do not include the freedom to express ideas – or merely convey information – that if popularly accepted among Palestinians could in fact make peace with the Israeli state possible.