Poll: Majority of Palestinians want Trump to stay out of peace process

Survey also indicates that 83% of Palestinians believe that Obama did not make serious efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

By ADAM RASGON
Updated: DECEMBER 14, 2016 23:17
Arab women walk past a shop in Jerusalem’s Old City displaying T-shirts with images of newly elected President Donald Trump (L) and outgoing President Barack Obama. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Arab women walk past a shop in Jerusalem’s Old City displaying T-shirts with images of newly elected President Donald Trump (L) and outgoing President Barack Obama.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
A majority of Palestinians, 53%, want US President-elect Donald Trump to stay out of the peace process, a public opinion poll found.
Thirty percent of respondents said they want Trump to play a strong role in the peace process, and 10% said they want him to play some role.
During the election campaign, Trump promised to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, something the Palestinian leadership vehemently opposes. Since the election, his advisers have made contradictory statements on the matter.
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The poll, which the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research conducted, also indicated that 83% of Palestinians believe that US President Barak Obama did not make serious efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while 10% say that he did.
Obama vowed to make an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement a priority in a speech at Cairo University in June 2009, early in his first term, but seven-and-a-half years later no agreement has been signed.
Asked about the viability of a two-state solution, the survey found that 65% of Palestinians no longer believe the two state solution is possible, whereas 31% believe it still can be achieved.
Meanwhile, the poll determined that 62% of Palestinians support abandoning the Oslo Accords, while 31% want to keep them in place.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas offered a defense of the Oslo Accords in a speech at the start of December, saying that they are responsible for the return of many Palestinians to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
As for strategy to achieve statehood in the absence of negotiations, 74% of Palestinians said they support international initiatives, 62% said they back peaceful, popular resistance, and 53% said they favor an armed intifada.
Since the failure of the most recent peace talks in May 2014, the Palestinian leadership has focused its efforts on international initiatives, while neglecting popular resistance and rejecting an armed intifada.
Moreover, regarding internal Palestinian politics, 35% of Palestinians said they are satisfied with the performance of Abbas.
Asked whether the PA president should resign, 64% said yes.
Sixty percent of Palestinians also said they reject the PA Constitutional Court’s decision to grant Abbas the authority to lift the immunity of parliamentarians while the Palestinian Legislative Council is not in session.
Abbas on Monday lifted the immunity of five legislators who have been critical of his leadership, paving the way for the PA public prosecutor to completion an investigation into allegations of money laundering and illegal weapons trade against them.