Palestinians Polled Favor Two-State Solution

International Peace Institute recently published a poll with encouraging results.

The poll reveals major changes in attitudes since 2000, when Palestinians rejected compromises proposed at the Camp David summit with Israel, and the 2006 Palestinian elections, when Fatah was defeated by the Islamist Hamas party.

A clear majority of Palestinians – 55% – favor a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, separate from Israel, according to the survey. Just 11% favored either of the other alternatives under discussion, a bi-national state of Palestinians and Israelis or a confederation with neighboring Jordan and Egypt. (The rest favored none of these options or didn’t know which they preferred).

There was also majority support among Palestinians for a two-state peace plan. Almost two-thirds (64%) preferred the plan, based on proposals from post-Camp David negotiations at Taba in 2001 and informal Israeli-Palestinian talks in Geneva in 2003, while just 17% preferred the status quo.

The poll gave Fatah 45% of the parliamentary vote and 24% to Hamas, although a Fatah legislative council majority would depend on the choices of swing voters and the electoral system used. It also found that Abbas would defeat Haniyeh in a head-to-head contest across Palestine, though with a fairly narrow majority of 52%.

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