Poll: Majority of Palestinians Support Another Intifada

Fifty-seven percent of Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip support another intifada (a violent uprising) according to a poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey. Palestinian leadership planned the second, most recent intifada even before it engaged in U.S.-led peace talks with Israel at Camp David in 2000. That terror war lasted from 2000 to 2005, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,000 Israelis, mostly non-combatants and more than 2,000 Palestinian Arabs, mostly teenaged boys and young men—that is, males of military age.

The survey—conducted from Sept. 17-19, 2015—took place after Fatah (Movement for the Liberation of Palestine) head and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas submitted his resignation to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee and called for a reconvening of the Palestinian National Council (PNC). The poll took place amid an increase in tensions and Palestinian attacks on Israelis following incitement by Abbas and PA state-run media, as CAMERA has noted (“Incitement over Temple Mount Leads to Palestinian Violence, Again,” Sept. 16, 2015).

According to The Times of Israel, on Sept. 22 Abbas warned of another intifada—which he alleged Palestinian Arabs “don’t want” (“Abbas warns of ‘intifada risk’ over Temple Mount,” Sept. 22). Yet, results from this Palestinian Center survey contradict Abbas’ claim.

Twenty-six percent of Palestinian respondents stated that their long-term goal should be “to conquer the state of Israel or conquer the state of Israel and kill most of the Jews.” The survey polled 1,270 Palestinian Arabs, with a three percent margin of error.

Pluralities of Palestinian Arabs surveyed oppose a two-state solution, yet only 30 percent support a one-state solution in which Arabs and Israeli’s “enjoy equal rights.” Fifty-eight percent oppose mutual recognition of Israel as a state for Jewish people and Palestine as a second state for Palestinian people. Jordan, comprising 77 percent of the lands originally intended for the League of Nations/British Mandate for Palestine, also has a majority Palestinian Arab population.

More Palestinians polled (42 percent) feel that violence is the “most effective” means to obtain a state than non-violent resistance (24 percent) or negotiations (29 percent).

Other important trends also were highlighted in the Center’s poll.

Two-thirds of West Bank Palestinians demand the resignation of Abbas from the PA and two-thirds do not believe his resignation from the PLO is real. Similar discontent with Palestinian leadership is evidenced by a decline in the popularity of Abbas’ Fatah party, which has an iron grip over the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The Gaza Strip is ruled by Hamas (the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement).

Findings from the survey show that Palestinian trust in the PA is low. The Center notes “a majority believes that it [the PA] has become a burden on the Palestinian people and for the first time since we started asking, a majority now demands the dissolution of that authority.”

Only 12 percent of Gazans and 31 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank evaluated their current conditions as “positive.”

Perhaps related to this dissatisfaction: 79 percent of those polled perceive PA institutions to be corrupt and only 23 percent and 19 percent believe there to be press freedom in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, respectively. Thirty-one percent of West Bank Palestinians say they can criticize the PA without fear of retribution. Only 29 percent of Gazans said the same about Hamas, the U.S.-listed terror organization that has ruled Gaza since its election in 2007.

According to this survey, the individual receiving the most support to replace Abbas is Marwan Barghouti. Barghouti, the head of Fatah’s Tanzim faction, is serving five life sentences plus 40 years in an Israeli prison for his role in the murders of a Greek monk in 2001 and four Israelis in 2002. He is perhaps best known for planning—in conjunction with Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a U.S.-listed terror group—over 300 terror attacks during the second intifada (“Is Fatah Moderate?” Aug. 14. 2007).

The poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey can be found here.—Sean Durns