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Gazans Were Polled on Oct. 6. What Did They Say?

(New York Times) Ezra Klein - Dr. Amaney Jamal, who grew up in Ramallah, is dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, and a co-founder and co-principal investigator of Arab Barometer, which conducted a survey of public opinion in Gaza that was completed on Oct. 6, 2023. There would be no invasion of Gaza right now, no massive air bombing campaign, no siege of food and water, if Hamas hadn't butchered more than 1,400 people in Israel and taken hundreds more hostage on Oct. 7. They did this. It should be on them to end it. Israel is right to want to destroy Hamas, or at least destroy the threat that it poses. Every country in the world would want the same in its position. One wonders whether so many Gazans want to be sacrificed as martyrs by Hamas. Jamal: "In Gaza, what we found is that trust for the Hamas government was low. It seems to be on the decline. So we found about 67% said they had no trust or little trust in Hamas....When we asked people if elections were held today, who would you vote for? What we also found is that about a quarter said that they would vote for Ismail Haniyeh, who is the leader of Hamas.... Mahmoud Abbas did not receive very high scores either." "When we asked people in Gaza who is their preferred party, 27% said Hamas...and then 30% said they would favor Fatah....A good percentage of citizens in Gaza have little faith in either of the political parties." "Everybody keeps basing the Hamas popularity on the 2006 election...[which] never was based on a landslide for Hamas. Hamas secured 44% of the popular vote in that election. And...a lot of that vote was mobilized on ending corruption of the Palestinian Authority."
2023-11-06 00:00:00
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