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Poll: Palestinians Want to Work in Israel Now, "Liberate" It Later

(Mosaic) David Pollock - A Palestinian opinion poll I conducted in June 2015 found that neither politics nor religion is a top priority for most Palestinians in the West Bank or Gaza. Most people say their top priority is either "making enough money to live comfortably" or "having a good family life." Only 14% of West Bankers, and 24% of Gazans select "working to establish a Palestinian state" as their top priority. A mere 12% of West Bankers and 19% of Gazans say that "being a good Muslim (or Christian)" is either their first or even second priority. Despite widespread theoretical support for boycotts against Israel, most Palestinians want economic cooperation and say they "would like to see Israel allow more Palestinians to work inside Israel." At the same time, there is majority support in both the West Bank (58%) and Gaza (65%) - even if a two-state solution is negotiated - for continuing the "struggle...until all of historic Palestine is liberated" and for armed "resistance" as a means toward that end. In the West Bank, 81% say that all of historic Palestine "is Palestinian land and Jews have no rights to the land." In Gaza it's 88%. The writer is a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he directs the Fikra Forum blog and the Arabic website.
2015-11-20 00:00:00
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