Thursday, October 28, 2021
Elder of Ziyon
According to the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, when asked "the most preferred way out of the current status quo" 36% said “reaching a peace agreement with Israel” while 34% prefer waging “an armed struggle against the Israeli occupation.”
In September, 28% said a peace agreement while a plurarilty of 39% said they felt terror was the best way.
When asked a somewhat different question, as to the most effective way to end the "occupation," a smaller plurality than September prefers terror. 44% chose "armed struggle" and 36% negotiations, compared to September's 48% preferring terror and 28% preferring negotiations.
I think the reason is that after the May conflict, Palestinians identified more with Hamas, which they respected for shooting rockets at Jerusalem to "defend Silwan" or "al-Aqsa." A month after the fighting, the "end the occupation" question resulted in 49% chose armed struggle, 27% negotiations, roughly the same as September. Before the war, in April, 36% said that they prefer reaching a peace agreement with Israel and 26% said they prefer violence.
So the tilt towards supporting terror seems to have been a bump in support of Hamas' philosophy as a result of the war, and now disillusionment on how little that helped is starting to set in. (The poll also showed that Hamas' popularity has gone down in October.)
Another factor may be that Palestinians are reacting positively towards Israeli goodwill gestures under the Bennett government, like allowing 4G networking in the territories.
But as we are seeing, support for negotiations is not a solid position. Public opinion can easily turn towards supporting terror at any time, as it has many times before.
No one mentions the consistent pattern in the polls: acts of terror like suicide bombs and rocket barrages do not bring revulsion from the Palestinian public, but huge waves of support.
