RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM, 24 August 2007 — Palestinians prefer the Western-backed government of Salam Fayyad to the sacked Cabinet of Hamas Premier Ismail Haniyeh, according to an opinion poll published yesterday.
The poll published by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC) following Hamas’ control over the Gaza Strip found that a majority of the Palestinian public, 46.7 percent, generally believes that the situation in the Gaza Strip worsened following Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip, compared with 27.1 percent who think that the situation has improved.
The poll also found that respondents blamed Hamas for the deadly internal fighting that preceded the takeover, and support early elections, as called for by President Mahmoud Abbas. The majority of Gazans, however, feel their security has improved since the Hamas rout.
Fighters from the Islamist Hamas overran security forces loyal to Abbas, leader of the secular Fatah party, on June 15. Afterward, the president fired the Hamas-led unity Cabinet and appointed Fayyad, a respected economist, to head a government of independents, a move not recognized by Hamas.
When asked to evaluate the performance of the Fayyad and Haniyeh Cabinets, 46.7 percent said Fayyad’s was better, compared with 24.1 percent who said it was worse and 22.8 percent who said they were similar.
When asked who was to blame for the deadly factional clashes in Gaza that preceded the Hamas takeover, 43.5 percent said Hamas, 28.4 percent chose Fatah and 17.5 said both. The breakdown for respondents in the Gaza Strip was little different from the territories as a whole with 40.7 percent, 30.9 percent and 17.7 percent respectively.
When asked to describe the situation in Gaza after the Hamas takeover, 46.7 percent said it was worse, compared with 27.1 percent who said it was better, and 21.1 percent who said it had not changed. In Gaza, the figures were 45.2 percent, 34.1 percent and 20 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal said efforts to end the bitter feud with Abbas were deadlocked because of Israeli and US meddling, and insisted his men would stay in control of Gaza.
And he warned in an interview with AFP that despite renewed efforts to forge peace between Israel and the Palestinians, resistance remained the only option for Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.
“Mediation efforts are at an impasse because they (Abbas’ Fatah faction) have shut all the doors and rejected Palestinian and other Arab mediation, including initiatives by some Fatah officials,” Meshaal told Agence France Presse in Amman in a telephone interview from Syria. “Israeli and American interference is responsible for blocking the reconciliation,” he said.
Meshaal said: “We have not taken Gaza in order to give it back to them... We have defended our legitimacy against ‘warlords’ who were preparing a coup with the help of the Americans and the Israelis.”
