Half of Palestinians think PA erred in resuming peace talk with Israel, poll finds

Nearly 70% of Palestinians believe negotiations will end without agreement, according to public opinion poll.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Tzipi Livni, John Kerry, and Saeb Erekat 370 (photo credit: Reuters)
Tzipi Livni, John Kerry, and Saeb Erekat 370
(photo credit: Reuters)
Half of Palestinians believe the Palestinian Authority made a mistake when it decided to resume peace talks with Israel more than three months ago, according to a public opinion poll published Wednesday.
The poll also showed that nearly 70 percent of Palestinians believe the negotiations would not result in an agreement with Israel.
This is in accordance with a poll published earlier this month by An-Najah University in Nablus. That poll also found that over 70% of Palestinians expect the peace talks to fail, and that more than half of the Palestinians do not support the resumption of the peace talks.
The latest poll was conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center in east Jerusalem, and covered 1,200 Palestinians over the age of 18 throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, between November 13 and 17. The poll has a margin of error of three percent.
The survey also showed that Palestinians remain divided over the best method to achieve their goals. One-third of respondents favored peaceful negotiations, while another one-third said that armed resistance was their preferred means. 27% said that they supported a “nonviolent, peaceful resistance.”
The majority of the Palestinians (30%) continued to hold Hamas responsible for the persisting division between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to the poll, and more than 45% of respondents said that the latest developments in Egypt were not encouraging in terms of any change in Hamas’s position toward reconciliation with Fatah.
The poll also found that despite growing discontent, 65% of respondents said that there was a need to perpetuate and maintain the Palestinian Authority while only 24% called for its dismantling.
In general, the poll showed that 61% of respondents believe that the performance of the PA is good compared to 33% who termed it as bad.
Like previous polls by the same organization PA President Mahmoud Abbas continued to maintain the most trust among Palestinians – 20% as opposed to 11% for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, according to the survey.
With regards to the “Arab Spring,” the poll showed that 42% of Palestinians believe that that these events would change the Arab world for the worse. Half of respondents said that the “Arab Spring” would be at the expense of the Palestinian cause.