Oct. 9, 1997 Contact Pauline Austin (541) 346-3129 EUGENE--The majority of Palestinians and Israelis are willing to make concessions to attain reconciliation in the Middle East, according to Palestinian scholar Rashid Khalidi. But reconciliation won't take place, he says, until the leaders of the two countries recognize that both sides have legitimate claims to the region. Khalidi, who was an adviser to the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and Washington Arab-Israeli peace negotiations from October 1991 to June 1993, will speak at the University of Oregon on Thursday, Oct. 16. The talk, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall, 961 E. 18th Ave. The lecture is the first in a series of events on peace in the Middle East. The year-long program will explore ways to support communication and peace-building efforts among Palestinians and Israelis. Other events will include seminars and classes on the role of cross-cultural communication in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, public lectures by other visiting scholars, a storytelling series at the Eugene Public library and a feature film series. "I think it is possible for people to disagree and remain in relationships--for large-scale social transformations to take place without violence," says David Frank, co-chair of the UO Carlton Raymond and Wilberta Ripley Savage International Relations and Peace Committee. "We hope the university's Carlton Savage Program can be a small part of the critical effort to support the peace process and to shift the focus back to the optimistic spirit which graced the Middle East so recently," adds Frank, a rhetoric professor. The premise of Khalidi's recent book, "Palestinian Identity: The Construction of National Consciousness," is that the Palestinian identity emerged long before and independent of the advent of Zionism. "Many people assume that the Palestinian identity is somehow less valid than the Jewish identity," Khalidi says. "A precondition for peace is that these attitudes must be overcome." Khalidi's lecture and the other events in the UO Israeli-Palestinian Peace program is sponsored by the Carlton Raymond and Wilberta Ripley Savage Endowment on International Relations and Peace, the Office of the President, the Oregon Humanities Center, International Studies Program, Department of Anthropology, Department of Religious Studies, Office of International Affairs, the Robert D. Clark Honors College, the Provost's Office of Research and Graduate Education, the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, and Portland State University's Middle East Studies Program. For information, call (541) 346-5087. -30- #P-6011/Local,OrDailies,A&E,PDX