The Gaza war increases Hamas’ popularity and greatly weakens the standing of the PA and its leadership; nonetheless, the majority of the Palestinians remains unsupportive of Hamas:
In PSR's just released poll, Palestinian support for the two-state solution rises considerably to 46% compared to 36% last month. This change is accompanied by a rise in support for Fatah from 32% last month to 38% in the current poll:
In seeking protection from settler terror, West Bankers in general see the Israeli army:
1. Stops or prevents settler attacks8%
2. Observe without intervention66%
3. Assist the attackers24%
64% of the Palestinians believe that the two-state solution is no longer practical or feasible due to the expansion of Israeli settlements while 32% believe that the solution remains practical
90% of the Palestinians say that they do not believe or trust the US administration; more than three quarters believe that the US economic plan, Peace to Prosperity, will not bring them economic prosperity:
80% of Palestinians say they did not see videos, shown by international news outlets, showing acts committed by Hamas against Israeli civilians, such as the killing of women and children in their homes; only 19% (11% in the West Bank and 30% in the Gaza Strip) saw these videos.
If parliamentary elections are to take place today in Palestine, 30% would vote for Hamas, 14% for Fatah, 6% for third parties, 15% remain undecided; and the others do not turn out to vote.
When a two-state solution is defined as a Palestinian state alongside Israel with 1967 boundaries and East Jerusalem as a capital for the Palestinian state, Palestinian support jumps from 47% to 53%:
When Palestinians were asked about the most effective means of ending the Israeli occupation, the largest group (44%) chose armed struggle, 24% negotiations, and 22% popular resistance. Three months ago, 38% chose armed struggle and 31% chose negotiations.
The joint Palestinian-Israeli poll shows that support for a detailed peace plan based on a two-state solution can be significantly increased on both sides by integrating new components, such as regional peace, democracy, and guarantees of implementation:
When asked if Hamas committed atrocities seen in videos, the overwhelming majority of Palestinians (93%) said no, it did not. But the belief that Hamas men have committed atrocities against civilians is higher among those who did watch these videos:
While we continue to investigate the claim by the army, our tentative conclusion is that (1) Hamas could not have falsified the data; and (2) either the claim is based on a forgery or the Hamas document is genuine but the person who wrote it lied to make money from Hamas.
Palestinians and Israelis still prefer the two-state solution to any other framework for resolving the conflict. Moreover, pairs of zero-sum incentives can raise support for a peace plan that implements that solution:
A dozen educational/classroom experiments indicate Jewish and Palestinian students are more likely to trust the other/have a more positive attitude toward peace when classroom texts presented are “objective” or present the other side in a positive light.
Now after the release of the "deal of the century," PSR poll findings show unprecedented decline in support for the two-state solution to less than 40%, the lowest reported by PSR since the signing of the Oslo agreement.
The vast majority of the Palestinians says that the PA security services do not arrive at areas that are subject to settler attacks, whether during or after the attacks
@YairWallach
What if Hamas’ timing and method of this October 7 war is deliberate? Could this mean its goals are similar to those of Sadat’s surprise attack of 1973? Ending the state of no-war, no-peace, seeking its own disengagement agreement with Israel, a long term hudna.
PSR September poll shows that 70% of the Palestinians view the UAE normalization with Israel as a betrayal or abandonment of the Palestinian cause, 1% view the deal positively, 86% think it serves only the interests of Israel:
Palestinians describing as excellent the performance of 10 local and regional actors during the latest confrontations:
Jerusalemites 89%
Israeli Arabs 86%
Hamas 75%
Egypt 22%)
Turkey 21%
Jordan (21%
Iran 18%
Fatah 13%
PA government 11%
Mahmoud Abbas 8%
Professor Khalil Shikaki
@KShikaki
, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research
@PSR_Palestine
, will brief the Council this AM from the perspective of Palestinian public opinion. He has conducted numerous surveys in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
84% of the Palestinians believe the Trump peace plan will not call for the ending of the Israeli occupation and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the areas occupied in 1967; 11% believe it will:
Support for armed struggle rises, particularly in the West Bank and in response to the war in Gaza and the settlers’ violence in the West Bank, but support for the two-state solution rises somewhat:
How did the PA manage to undo much of the progress it built in the first half of its existence. PSR's latest policy brief identifies four sources of authoritarianism in the Palestinian political system:
PSR's most recent poll shows that Palestinian public support for the concept of the two-state solution stands at 40% and opposition at 57%. By contrast, support for a one-state solution stands at 33% and opposition at 63%.
PSR's September 2021 poll shows that the killing of the opposition activist Nizar Banat and the PA behavior in its aftermath damage the standing of the PA as almost 80% of the public demand the resignation of president Abbas:
@HadarSusskind
As indicated in
@PCPSR1
poll, it might reflect some optimism after the Israeli implementation of few confidence building measures, such as family unifications.
A majority of 61% of the Palestinians believes that the two-state solution is no longer practical or feasible due to the expansion of Israeli settlements
@haaretzcom
@dahliasc
Excellent piece by my friend and colleague
@dahliasc
on Palestinian and Israeli public opinion and how leaders fail their own people at the moment of need in order to stay in power.
59% of Palestinians (77% in Gaza, 46% in West Bank) say armed attacks inside Israel contribute to the national interest of ending the occupation; 37% believe they do not; 47% of West Bankers believe armed attacks do not contribute to the national interest.
Now after the release of the "deal of the century," PSR poll findings show unprecedented decline in support for the two-state solution to less than 40%, the lowest reported by PSR since the signing of the Oslo agreement.
The rise in support for Fatah is accompanied by a decline for Hamas. Last month, Hamas stood at 37%; now it is 33%. Hamas might have been seen as failing to deliver after the war; Fatah might have benefited from the Israeli confidence building measures:
The main Palestinian beneficiaries from the current split are Fatah and Hamas; both are willing to sacrifice the public interest in order to maintain their own party interests.
A majority of 63% of Palestinians believes that the two-state solution is no longer practical or feasible due to the expansion of Israeli settlements while 35% believe that the solution remains practical:
In 2019, the PA will simultaneously confront four challenges: an American peace plan it rejects, a West Bank-Gaza Strip split intensifying into permanent separation, serious financial destabilization, and a growing domestic questioning of its legitimacy:
The largest percentage (44%) of Palestinians believes that armed resistance is the most effective means of establishing a Palestinian state next to the state of Israel; three months ago, only 35% indicated that armed resistance is the answer,
If the "Hamas" document is fake, why would the army do it? To prove its mission has been accomplished and it is time to get out of Gaza. It seems like a good response to Netanyahu's false claim that 82% of the Palestinians supported Hamas: we found only 42% supported Hamas
While we continue to investigate the claim by the army, our tentative conclusion is that (1) Hamas could not have falsified the data; and (2) either the claim is based on a forgery or the Hamas document is genuine but the person who wrote it lied to make money from Hamas.
With Joe Biden as president, Palestinian attitudes shift toward a US role in peace negotiations: 48% are opposed, and 44% are supportive, of a return to Palestinian-Israeli negotiations under the US leadership. Unthinkable six months ago.
What kind of national unity government Palestinians want: one under the control of a political party, under the control of President Abbas, or an independent one comprised of competent professionals not under the control of political parties or Abbas?
56% of the Palestinians believe the two-state solution is no longer feasible due to Israeli settlement expansion and 71% believe that the chances for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel in the next five years are slim to none:
73% of East Jerusalemites say they do not intend to participate, or have not considered participation, in the Israeli municipal elections in the city but 22% indicate that they are indeed intending to vote or considering voting:
To protect their communities from settler terror, four options were provided:
1) Rely on the Israeli army: 21%
2) Deployment of PA police: 21%
3) The formation of armed groups by the residents of the targeted: 46%
4) The formation of unarmed groups: 10%
Joint Palestinian-Israeli research found youth on both sides are more likely to hold hardline views, to indicate less trust, and to adhere to beliefs of ethos of conflict and hold stronger negative stereotype of the other:
Palestinian satisfaction with Arab and regional actors' role during the war shows the highest level of satisfaction goes to Yemen followed by Qatar, Hizballah, Iran, Jordan, and Egypt:
Palestinian support for the concept of the two-state solution stands today at 42%, the same as three months ago, and opposition at 55%. No description or details were provided for the concept.
The sudden rise in support for the 2SS comes mostly from the West Bank, Fatah supporters, who are also mostly “somewhat religious,” and from the 18-29 years old. Confidence building measures and Abbas' UN speech, affirming commitment to that solution, might have led to this rise:
Asked why the Israeli army fails to stop settler terrorism: 54% say settlers are a tool Israel uses to fight and expel Palestinians from their land; 20% say settlers are the decision makers in the Israeli government:
76% of the Palestinians believe that Abbas' decision to stop implementation of agreements with Israel is merely a media stunt or ploy and that the PA will not be implement that decision. Only 16% say Abbas is serious and will implement it.
Palestinian support for the two-state solution stands at 39%, almost the same as in March; but support for the one-state solution drops from 33% to 20% during the same period. Confrontations between Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews might have caused the drop
Jaber calls upon the PLO to dissolve the PA rather than wait for its inevitable collapse and argues that the difference between waiting for the collapse and initiating a dissolution is strategic and fateful
PSR's September 2021 poll finds support for the concept of the two-state solution standing at 36% and opposition stands at 62%. No description or details were provided for the concept. Three months ago, support for the concept stood at 39%.
PSR's latest poll: American recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel increases Abbas’ weakness, raises further suspicion concerning the role of regional powers, and increases calls for armed action among Palestinians,
About one fifth of the Palestinians thinks an Israeli government led by Naftali Bennett from the right wing Yamina party will be better for Israeli-Palestinian relations than a government led by Netanyahu; a large majority of 69% disagrees with that:
The brief argues that "Hamas is almost certainly not ready to lead the Palestinian people, even if 'leadership' is restricted to taking the initiative in responding to Israel’s expansionist policies."
The most recent Joint Palestinian-Israeli poll found that current support for the two-state solution, at 43% on each side, is the lowest in almost two decades. Still, fewer people on both sides support three possible alternatives to a two-state solution:
No Western scholar has done what Mark Tessler did, and continues to do, to advance survey and social science research in the Arab World. A lot of what we know today about the attitudes of people of that part of the world is largely an outcome of his vision and and determination.
.
@umisr
director Kate Cagney: "Mark Tessler’s work has been nothing short of exhaustive. He appears to have set out to fill every missing dimension in political science research in and about the Arab world."
77% of the Palestinians say they are worried that in their daily life they would be hurt by Israelis or that their land would be confiscated or homes demolished; 23% say they are not worried:
Why would a Hamas operative deceptively claim that he falsified our findings? To make money. His alleged letter to Hamas explicitly requests money for his alleged falsification of the data. If genuine, the man is too incompetent given the many mistakes he made in just two pages.
If the "Hamas" document is fake, why would the army do it? To prove its mission has been accomplished and it is time to get out of Gaza. It seems like a good response to Netanyahu's false claim that 82% of the Palestinians supported Hamas: we found only 42% supported Hamas
If presidential elections take place today in which PA president Mahmoud Abbas from Fatah and Ismail Haniyeh from Hamas compete, the former receives 42% and the latter 49% of the popular vote
When a two-state solution means “a Palestinian state alongside Israel based on the 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as its capital,” support for the concept rises to 60%:
If new Palestinian presidential elections are held today: Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas would receive 51% and Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh 41%. If the competition was between Marwan Barghouti and Ismail Haniyeh, Barghouti receives 64% and Haniyeh 33%:
Only 11% of the Palestinians believe that Arab normalization agreements with Israel help in resolving the conflict with Israel while 57% think they cause damage to the efforts to resolve the conflict:
60% of Palestinians believe that the two-state solution is no longer practical or feasible due to the expansion of Israeli settlements while 36% believe that solution remains practical:
56% (73% in the Gaza Strip and 44% in the West Bank) support armed attacks against Israelis inside Israel; 39% (26% in the Gaza Strip and 48% in the West Bank) are opposed to such attacks.
Today, the majority of Palestinians expects Hamas to win. But it is a little smaller majority than we found three months ago, 64% and 70% respectively:
Le Consul général adjoint
@QuentinLopinot
a rencontré le directeur du
@PSR_Palestine
@KShikaki
au cours d'une conversation passionnante sur la politique palestinienne et les enjeux de la relation entre les Palestiniens et Israël
Has the performance of the PA police in providing security in your area of residence improved or worsened? Half of all West Bankers believe it has worsened/somewhat worsened, 36% improved/somewhat improved, and 11% say it remained the same as before
Opposition to components of the US "deal of the century" ranges between 91%, for item on the billions in economic support conditioned on accepting the political plan, and 95%, for item on Jerusalem and the Palestinian capital and the one on holy places.
Do Palestinians and Israeli Jews support today a permanent peace package that ends the conflict along the lines of the 2000 Clinton parameters or the Abbas-Olmert 2008 talks?
PSR's June 2018 poll shows that 58% of Palestinians believe that Israel’s long-term aspiration is to annex the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and to expel the Palestinian population, 21% think that Israel aims at annexation while denying the Palestinian citizens their rights
Three quarters of the Palestinians demand the holding of general legislative and presidential elections; but only 32% expect such elections to be held soon in the Palestinian territories.
Three quarters of the public (75%) believe the Arab Peace Initiative is a thing of the past while 19% think it remains standing. 81% expect Saudi Arabia will soon join the Arab normalization train: