Poll: 53% of Palestinians don’t want Trump role in peace process
Two-thirds believe two-state solution is no longer viable; less than a third are happy Abbas was reelected head of Fatah
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleDov Lieber is a former Times of Israel Arab affairs correspondent.
A little over half of Palestinians (53 percent) do not want US President-elect Donald Trump to play a part in future peace talks with Israel, a poll published Tuesday indicates. Less than one third of respondents (30%) said they wanted him to want him to play a strong role in negotiations, and some 10% said they would be happy for the US to maintain the same level of involvement it currently has.
The poll, conducted by Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, found that 83% of Palestinians believed President Barack Obama did not make a “serious” effort to resolve the conflict, while just 10% said he did do so.
The poll also found that 65% of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip no longer believe a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel is possible, while support for an armed intifada (uprising) has sharply risen.
According to the survey, Palestinian loss of trust in the two-state solution has grown over the past three months, with a 9% rise in the number of respondents expressing a lack of faith in the process. Palestinians cited continued settlement expansion in the West Bank, where they hope to establish a state, as the cause of this downturn.
The Palestinians are split into three similarly sized groups when it comes to which strategy to pursue in order to achieve statehood: 33% believe that negotiation is the most effective; 37% support armed action; and 24% think non-violent popular resistance is the best way to go.
The official strategy of the Palestinian Authority and its president Mahmoud Abbas to achieve statehood is through only non-violent means, including what it calls “popular protest,” boycotts, diplomatic pressure and multilateral negotiations with Israel.
In the absence of peace negotiations with Israel, the current course set by Abbas for joining more international organizations received 74% support among respondents, and 62% support said they support non-violent popular resistance.
But the poll also found 53% of Palestinians support a return to an armed intifada and 48% support the dissolution of the PA. Three months ago, support for a return to an armed intifada stood at 48% and 44% supported the dissolution of the PA.
A majority (52%) of respondents believe that Israel intends to destroy Muslim holy sites of the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and replace them with a new Jewish temple. This unfounded claim is seen as a key motivating factor for Palestinian violence against Israelis. (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denied any intention to change the status quo which bars Jews from praying on the Temple Mount; no mainstream Israeli policy advocates destroying the mosques at the site and building a new Jewish temple.)
In a recent interview, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman told the Palestinian newspaper al-Quds he would allow the rebuilding of the airport and a construction of a seaport in Gaza if Hamas, which controls the coastal enclave, stopped building tunnels and launching rockets. The large majority (80%) of respondents said they believed Liberman’s offer was not serious.
Abbas and Fatah still unpopular
According to Tuesday’s poll, a majority of Palestinians were unhappy with the outcome of the recent congress held by Fatah, in which the Palestinian party ruling the West Bank elected the leadership for its executive and legislative bodies.
On the first night of congress, which took place from November 28-December 2, the 81-year-old Abbas was unanimously reelected as head of Fatah for five more years.
The poll found only 33% of the Palestinian public was satisfied with this choice.
Additionally, 54% of respondents said they do not have confidence in the new leadership elected during the conference.
In his keynote speech during the conference, Abbas reiterated his support for the 1994 Oslo Accords, in which he played an essential role, and which lays the groundwork for a peace deal with Israel.
Yet support for the agreement is dropping among Palestinians, with 62% of respondents saying they would like to see it gone and just 30% opposing such a move.
Three months ago, 54% of Palestinians said they would support a move to abandon the Accords, while 36% opposed this step.
The poll also found almost two-thirds (64%) of Palestinians want Abbas step down — a rise of 3% since the last poll.
The Times of Israel Community.