82% percent of those surveyed said they believed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had now become an existential one.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFPalestinian demonstrators burn a U.S. flag during a protest against the U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan and in support of President Mahmoud Abbas, near the Jewish settlement of Beit El in the Israeli-occupied West Bank February 11, 2020(photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMAD TOROKMAN)
A new study shows that Palestinians have overwhelmingly rejected US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, Prof. Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah, said Thursday.The plan is opposed by 94% of the survey’s respondents in the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the West Bank, he told reporters at the Jerusalem Press Club.The study showed that 58% of Palestinians believe the plan has a 0% chance of ending the “Israeli occupation,” with some 21% of those surveyed saying it has less than a 50% chance of resolving the conflict, Shikaki said.The data was based on face-to-face interviews done between February 5-8 of 1,270 Palestinians. It has a 3% margin of error, he said.82% percent of those surveyed said they believed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had now become an existential one, Shikaki said.64% of those surveyed felt violence is the best response to Trump’s peace plan, 50% said violence was the most effective means of ending the “occupation,” and 45% said the only way to change the status quo was through armed struggle, according to the study.Palestinians felt Trump’s plan made the gap between them and Israelis totally unbridgeable, he said.“The American are giving the Israelis everything the Israelis wanted and more,” Shikaki said.The Palestinians fear that “the Israelis will get used to that, and they will not accept less. We [Palestinians], on the other hand, find this totally unacceptable,” he said. “If we thought yesterday [prior to the publication of the Trump plan] we could find some bridging proposal, that is gone,” he added.Shikaki has been collecting data on Palestinian attitudes toward the peace process for the last 20 years. He said there was a 10% rise over the last decade in support for a one-state solution, going from 27% in 2010 to 37% in 2020.
There was a 29% drop in support for a two-state solution over the last 12 years, dropping from 68% in 2008 to 39% in 2020. Much of the decline in support occurred under the eight years that former US president Barack Obama was in office, dropping to 44% in 2016, the last year of his presidency.Support for a two-state solution rose 52% in 2017, the first year of the Trump presidency, dropping 46% in 2018, 45% in 2019 and then to its lowest point in 12 years, 39%.“Probably people think that what the Americans are creating with [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is a one-state reality,” Shikaki said, adding that it would be a one-state reality that gave the Palestinians less rights.“Palestinians will never live quietly under a system of discrimination, of apartheid, and so that adds to the conflict,” he said.One third of Palestinians who live in Jerusalem preferred to live under Israeli sovereignty than a Palestinian state, Shikaki said. He attributed this to the construction of the security barrier, which cut them off from the West Bank and made their lives more intertwined with Israel.The survey also measured electoral support for Fatah versus Hamas in a parliamentary election. It showed that Fatah would get 38% of the vote, compared with 32% for Hamas.Regarding a leadership race, the survey showed that Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh would receive 49% of the vote, besting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who would get 44% .
