63% of Palestinians think suicide bombings should continue and 80% support the continuation of the intifada, while only 17% oppose it, according to a new poll released Wednesday. (via LGF.)
The poll also showed that, while there is widespread mistrust of Palestinian leaders, Yasser Arafat was the most-trusted leader, with 25% support. More importantly, the second- and third-place leaders were Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, leader of Hamas, and Marwan Barghouti, a leader of Fatah in jail in Israel for terrorist attacks.
So much for claims that suicide bombers are extremists on the fringe with no mainstream support.
Speaking of the straight news Segacs, who conducted that poll, when, what was the sample, how were the questions worded?
Hanthala, I provided the link to the original article. If you want to pursue that information, it’s available.
Actually the question was “Do you support the resumption of the military operations against Israel targets as a suitable response within the current political conditions, or do you reject it and find it harmful to Palestinian national interests?”
69% found it “A suitable response within the current political condition”
24% responded “I reject it and find it harmful to Palestinian national interest”
The 80% figure indicates the number of people who answered in one of the ‘support’ categories to the question “Do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose the continuation of the al-Aqsa Intifada in the West Bank and Gaza Strip?”
And the 25% figure indicates the number of people who answered “Yasser Arafat” to the open-ended question “Which Palestinian personality do you trust the most?” This response was beaten out by the 30% who answered “I don’t trust anyone.” Yassin got 11% and Barghouti 5%.
Interesting results not reported in the mainstream press:
To the question “In your opinion, do you support the continuation of a popular [ie. demonstrations] or military Intifada or both of them together?”
21% supported popular resistance
14% supported military resistance
58% supported a combination of the two
To the question “In principle, do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis?”
54% supported
42% opposed
This, even though the majority were pessimistic towards “reaching a peaceful settlement for the Arab-Israeli conflict.”
26% optimistic
72% pessimistic
And finally,
47% supported a “Two-state solution: an Israeli and a Palestinian”
26% supported a “Bi-national state on all of historic Palestine”
11% supported “One Palestinian state with one nationality.”
When you take a look at the overall results and not just at what was reported in the mainstream press, a much less extremist view of the Palestinian respondents emerges.
Take a look at the data at http://www.jmcc.org/publicpoll/results/2002/no47.htm
Whoops,
The 63% figure was also correct.
The question was “What is your feeling towards suicide bombing operations against Israeli civilians, do you support it or oppose it?”
63% supported
30% opposed
My mistake.