An Associated Press report published by Israel’s Ynetnews summarizes the results of an opinion poll undertaken by Near East Consulting, a research firm based in the West Bank. The firm said it surveyed 470 Palestinians in Gaza by telephone on September 25-27. Admittedly, the sample is small (no margin of error was cited), but the results appear to be unambiguous: Hamas, which “governs” Gaza, isn’t very popular:
- 58 percent of respondents said they are now afraid to express their political views following the Hamas takeover, and 60 percent say Hamas’ paramilitary police, known as the Executive Force, has done a poor job respecting individual rights.
- 52 percent of respondents consider Abbas’ government to be the legitimate Palestinian ruling authority, while only 26 percent favor the Hamas government led by Ismail Haniyeh. Sixty-four percent said they trust Abbas, compared with 36 percent who trust Fatah.
- 72 percent said they support a final peace agreement with Israel, and 55 percent called on Hamas to change its position toward Israel.
- Nearly three-quarters said they support Abbas’ call for new elections – a position opposed by Hamas. It said 42 percent would vote for Fatah, with just 15 percent support for Hamas.
- 86 percent said they are worried about the state of affairs in Gaza, and 47 percent said they are thinking of emigrating. A month ago, 33 percent said they were considering emigration.
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.
Comments are closed.
PoliGazette Comments Policy
PoliGazette encourages comments from all viewpoints, especially those that disagree.
Comments submitted must, however, adhere to the following standards. Comments that violate
these standards may be edited or deleted without notice at the sole discretion of the editors.
Commenters who repeatedly or egregiously violate these standards or who attempt to argue
publicly with editors regarding the comments policy may be banned from commenting further.
(1) Comments should address the substantive content of the post. Comments that repeatedly
or blatantly misrepresent the content of the post or of others' comments are not welcome. Comments that
respond to something other than which the contributor or commenter may have said are irrelevant and should
not be posted.
(2) Comments should avoid vulgarity as well as racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual bigotry.
(3) Comments should not personally attack the character, personal integrity, or professional
reputation of any PoliGazette contributor or of other commenters.
(4) Comments should reflect the contributions of the commenters themselves and should not
include extensive cut-and-paste reproductions of others' words except insofar as necessary to supplement
the commenter's own arguments. Link spam, trackback spam, and propaganda spam will be instantly deleted.
(5) Public figures are considered open to all substantive criticism of their policies and statements.
Comments that present objectively false factual information about public figures (i.e. "Obama is a Muslim") or
that attack public figures by attacking their families are not welcome. Comments that merely repeat
slogans for or against a candidate without engaging in substantive comment are not welcome.
Questions or challenges to these policies or their application should be directed to the editors
by email only.
Awesome, a reality-based reaction. Perhaps the seeds to a ground-up, civil and communitarian organization can be sown in this discontent?
Xel — On the one hand, there’s reason for hope; on the other, it’s the Middle East.