JERUSALEM: Most Palestinians who want a state of their own would like to achieve it through a peace deal with Israel but there is still substantial support for the Hamas movement which favors resistance, according to a new opinion poll.
The survey by New York pollsters Charney research for the New York-based International Peace Institute (IPI) was carried out over the summer in Gaza, where Hamas rules, and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, under the authority of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement.
“Fatah is seen as the party of governance and peace, while Hamas now is only seen as the party of resistance, although that, too, resonates with Palestinians,” said Craig Charney, head of Charney Research. IPI said the poll “reveals major changes in attitudes since 2000, when Palestinians rejected compromises proposed at the Camp David summit with Israel, and the 2006 Palestinian elections, when Fatah was defeated by ...Hamas.” “A clear majority of Palestinians — 55 percent — favor a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza ... just 11 percent favored either of the other alternatives under discussion, a bi-national state of Palestinians and Israelis or a confederation with neighboring Jordan and Egypt.” The survey was conducted in June and July. This week, US President Barack Obama intervened personally in a bid to relaunch stalled peace talks, bringing Abbas together with Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks in New York.
Netanyahu again resisted international calls to freeze Israeli settlement in the West Bank, which Abbas says it must do in order for talks to resume. Israel says the Palestinians are not in a position to make peace as long as Hamas rules Gaza.
