According to a recent poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO), 56.1% of the respondents polled are opposed to resuming direct peace talks with the Israeli government, mainly because the construction of illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has not stopped.The poll took place in October 2010, over eight days, and covered a sample of 1,005 respondents, all of them adult Palestinians from the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.
The survey asked a series of questions that included the direct talks with Israel, the Egyptian Reconciliation Document, U.N. forces in the West Bank and Gaza, Yassir Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, the Obama administration, Iranian nuclear weapons and the probability of a peace agreement.
The results of the survey, which were published in the PCPO’s web page, show very skeptical views expressed by the interviewees. Most of the respondents felt discouraged towards Obama administration policy in the Middle East; 44.7% of them were dissatisfied with the way in which Mahmoud Abbas is playing his role of Palestinian Authority’s President, and 60.3% said that they missed Yasser Arafat’s leadership.
With regards to the peace process, 56.1% of the respondents disagreed with the resumption of the direct talks with the Israeli government in the current climate. However, 42.6% claimed that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations will succeed and an agreement is “likely” to be made between the Palestinians and Israelis next year.
For the full report, please use the following link.
