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Thursday, December 18, 2008

PalArab poll results

The JMCC took some recent polls of the Palestinian Arab territories. While most of the raw results are not available on their site, there were some interesting results reported:

A plurality in both the West Bank and Gaza did not want the "truce" renewed, saying that it did not serve their "national interests."

Fatah is trusted more than Hamas in both the West Bank and Gaza, by a wide margin. This is perhaps the best refutation for those who claim that Israel's actions are radicalizing Gazans.

On the other hand, Haniyeh is slightly trusted more than Abbas by Gazans. Even so, even in Gaza more would would vote for Abbas than Haniyeh in elections.

"Only" 6.9% of Palestinian Arabs feel that husbands have the right to beat their wives. Keep in mind that half of those polled were women, so the percentage of men who feel this way is probably closer to 13-14%.

Similarly, 41% say that a husband is not obligated to tell his wife that he is marrying another. Almost certainly a great majority of men feel this way.

A majority of PalArabs feel that women wearing the hijab should be mandatory. In Gaza 65% answered that way while in the West Bank it was 47.6%.

55.1% of respondents said that Islamic Sharia law must be the sole source for legislation, while 40.1% said it should be a source of legislation. Only 2.4% felt that sharia law should have nothing to do with civil law.

Yet only a bare majority regularly pray in mosques.