Palestinian American Says He’s Barred as West Bank Teacher

Israel has barred a Palestinian American professor from teaching in the occupied West Bank because he conducted a poll showing Arab support for the Palestine Liberation Organization, he said Tuesday.

Mohammed Shadid said in an interview that Israeli authorities told him he was prevented from teaching after he refused their demands to write an article altering his conclusions.

Israeli authorities told reporters that Shadid was being prevented from teaching because he “engaged in non-academic activities.” They refused to elaborate.

Shadid said he would challenge the order barring him from teaching. He said he consulted the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, which has in the past expressed concern that Israel does not treat American Palestinians equally with American Jews.

Israel has recently tried to help Jordan bolster its standing in the territories while reducing the influence of the PLO. Israeli policy has included a crackdown on intellectuals not supportive of Jordan.

Pro-PLO Newspaper

Shadid, formerly of Howard University in Washington and now the head of political science at An Najah University in the West Bank city of Nablus, organized what was called the widest poll ever conducted of Palestinians under Israeli occupation for the pro-PLO Al Fajr newspaper in East Jerusalem two months ago. The poll was co-sponsored by the Australian Broadcasting Co. and the Long Island newspaper Newsday.

Shadid’s results, based on interviews with over 1,000 residents found that 93% of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip view the PLO as their representative. Only 3% named Jordan’s King Hussein as their favorite leader.

Israeli authorities have said the widely quoted poll could not be objective since those interviewed knew it was being conducted for a pro-PLO newspaper.

However, Meron Benvenisti, former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, said the poll, despite “methodological flaws,” was “the most thorough endeavor to date to gauge Palestinian views on current political issues.” Benvenisti is now director of the West Bank Data Base Project funded by the Rockefeller and Ford foundations.

The move against Shadid came two weeks after Israeli authorities ordered the expulsion of Akram Haniye, the Palestinian editor of the newspaper Al Shaab, from Arab East Jerusalem for alleged PLO activities. The editor has appealed the order, which had been delayed by an Israeli court ruling.

Meanwhile, in Amman, Jordan, a committee of Palestinians exiled by Israel from the West Bank and Gaza appealed to the international community to stop Haniye’s intended expulsion.

It issued two appeals, one addressed to Arab and foreign ambassadors and consuls and the other to the international community at large, asking them to intervene.

Haniye was charged with using his newspaper office for meetings to plan “terrorist activities. “

The statements urged “a halt to the official Israeli terrorism of administrative detention and expulsion of our people.”

They were signed by several prominent Palestinian exiles, including former Mayor Mohammed Milhem, now a member of the PLO executive committee.