Majority of Gazan Arabs Believe Attacking Israel is ‘Important,’ Poll Says
A recent survey shows that a majority of Palestinian Arabs in the Gaza Strip put a high premium on attacking Israel.
The poll was conducted by the Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD), based in Ramallah, from April 18-21, 2016. Palestinian Arabs in both the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), which is administered by the Palestinian Authority (PA), and those living in the Gaza Strip, ruled by U.S.-designated terror group Hamas, were polled.
The survey had a margin of error of 3 and a sampling size of 1,200.
Seventy-one percent of Gazans polled deemed “armed attacks against Israel” as “important.” Thirty-two percent of West Bankers shared this sentiment.
Forty-five percent of Gazans surveyed believed negotiations with Israel were important, whereas only 23 percent of West Bank Arabs believed this to be the case.
A majority of both West Bank (72 percent) and Gaza residents (77 percent) polled believe that reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, the movement that dominates the PA, is important.
The poll indicated that Hamas is not considered trustworthy: the terrorist group’s “political bureau,” shura [decision-making body] council and “military wing,” are not considered dependable by a majority of Palestinian Arabs in either the West Bank or Gaza. Fatah did only marginally better; 50 percent of West Bankers and 54 percent of Gazans surveyed said the movement was trustworthy.
Low opinions of Palestinian organizations were expressed in other ways as well.
Only 21 percent of West Bankers and 33 percent of Gazans described their rulers as transparent. Majorities of both, 60 and 52 percent respectively, didn’t find their governments as “respectful of human rights.” Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed in the West Bank did not believe the PA was “accountable to the people.” Fifty-eight percent of Gazans polled said the same about Hamas.
Only five percent of all Palestinians surveyed believed the government of PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was satisfactory at providing job opportunities. Similarly, single-digit expressions (6 percent) of confidence were evidenced by all Palestinians when asked if the PA was doing a good job at “improving financial transparency.”
AWRAD noted that “more than 80 percent of respondents believe there is corruption in government institutions in both the West Bank and Gaza.”
Yet, the leader most popular with Palestinian Arabs to resolve this and other complaints expressed in the survey, is a convicted terrorist and murderer.
Marwan Barghouti is the “most electable leader,” according to AWRAD. Barghouti, the former head of Fatah’s Tanzim faction, is currently 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. As CAMERA has noted, Barghouti’s popularity was evident in a September 2015 poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy Survey (“Poll: Majority of Palestinians Support Another Intifada,” Sept. 25, 2015).
AWRAD’s poll can be found here.
More from SNAPSHOTS
Professor John Quigley Falsely Condemns Israel and U.S. Support in His Syndicated Column
April 30, 2019
John B. Quigley In his widely distributed April syndicated opinion piece mainly about ISIS, the Islamist terrorist entity, John B. Quigley, an Ohio State University law professor, argues that claims of an imminent ISIS resurgence [...]
The New York Times’ Slow Reaction to Hamas Crackdown on Palestinian Protesters
April 4, 2019
The New York Times took a slight jab at Hamas, the terrorist organization that rules the Gaza Strip, in a recent story about Hamas's crackdown on Palestinian protesters who spoke out against its policies in [...]
CNN’s Zakaria Deals With U.S. Proclamation Recognizing Golan As Part Of Israel
April 3, 2019
Fareed Zakaria hosted an eight-minute discussion of the Golan matter at the end of his weekly (weekend) program, “Global Public Square “ (GPS) hour-long Cable News Network (CNN) broadcast. The broadcast, on both CNN and [...]
NY Times Reporter David Halbfinger Editorializes Israel as “Brutal”
March 6, 2019
New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief David Halbfinger Israel, according to the New York Times, is a brute. A March 3 news analysis piece—not an opinion piece—by the newspaper's Jerusalem bureau chief David Halbfinger uses [...]
Palestinian Malevolent Indoctrination Exposed; Mainstream Media Are Indifferent
February 26, 2019
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), an Israel-based non-governmental organization, analyzes and presents in English to the world the ongoing inflammatory indoctrination of Palestinians in Arabic particularly via Palestinian Authority (PA) television (West Bank). PMW is a [...]
Did WCC Activists Attend A Birthday Party Promoted by Palestinian Extremist Organization?
February 4, 2019
The video is a bit fuzzy and grainy. But the footage of birthday party for Shadi Farar, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who spent three years in an Israeli jail on charges of intent to murder, [...]