Since he almost signed his life away on an Israeli-Palestinian peace petition, "Mustafa" has preferred anonymity, even in his own neighborhood.
The petition is part of the "Peoples' Voice," a campaign calling for Palestinians dispossessed by the 1948 Middle East war over Israel's creation to settle for a future state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Frustrated by punishing Israeli crackdowns against a Palestinian uprising launched in September 2000, Mustafa, a son of Palestinian refugees, was ready to give up this "right of return." But his neighbors in one of Bethlehem's squalid camps disagreed.
"They saw my name listed in the newspaper with 800 others and threatened to punish me for my `treachery,'" Mustafa said. "My life and my family were in danger ... For my family's sake, I had to take out a new ad and recant."
Such is the discord over the Peoples' Voice, launched simultaneously in Israel and the occupied territories in June in the hope of ending 34 months of bloodshed and diplomatic deadlock.
A petition which the campaign is distributing in Israel and the territories aims to demonstrate popular backing for plans like the US-backed "road map" to peace and bolster Palestinian and Israeli leaders against extremists opposed to coexistence.
"We hope for a critical mass of grassroots activism," said Palestinian intellectual Sari Nusseibeh, who founded the Peoples' Voice with former Israeli security chief Ami Ayalon.
Campaigners say at least 10,000 Palestinians have signed and expect 10 times as many by year's end. Figures are about double on the Israeli side, reflecting a population twice as big.
Much of the petition is familiar from previous peace proposals: a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza with Jewish settlements on occupied land removed, and Jerusalem as a binational capital, its holy sites under religious auspices.
But by abjuring the right of return of some 4 million refugees and their descendants, the Peoples' Voice cut to the quick of the Middle East conflict. Palestinian reactions ranged from sceptical to downright hostile.
"If Nusseibeh tries to make a deal and play the merchant on the refugee issue, our reach is long -- even longer than he expects," said Muntassir Abu Rayyan of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
Arafat has not commented publicly on the Peoples' Voice.
A PRIVATE AFFAIR
Unprecedented among Palestinians, the Peoples' Voice was inspired by similar initiatives abroad. In 1996 and 1998, Northern Ireland referendums showing support among divided Catholics and Protestants helped speed a peace deal.
The campaigning in the West Bank and Gaza is far more low key, conducted one-on-one or through discreet discussion groups.
"Palestinians need to talk it through, to be convinced, before they put their name to a political idea," said Shukri Ghadayda, a Fatah councilman in Bethlehem and volunteer petitioner. "This is a very private affair."
West Bank organizers report success everywhere but in Jenin and Nablus, militant bastions still reeling from fierce Israeli incursions last year. There, the Peoples' Voice has made do with publishing num-bers for people to "phone in" their signatures.
Seven activists and the volunteers they recruited are responsible for circulating the petition in Gaza. It has been slow going, they said, with 20 to 50 signatures a day.
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