A recently published Palestinian Public Opinion poll found that 67% of Palestinians support the “use of knives in the current confrontations with Israel”.
The poll, conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), was carried out in the West Bank and Gaza earlier this month.
The main findings of this poll continued the trends seen in the last poll carried out by PSR in September; a growing majority of Palestinians support a return to an armed intifada, and a growing majority continues to reject a two-state solution.
As seen in the September report, youth between the ages of 18 and 22 continue to be the most supportive of an armed intifada and stabbing attacks and most opposed to a two-state solution.
Moreover, two-thirds of Palestinians continue to demand the resignation of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
For this survey, 1270 adults were interviewed face to face in 127 randomly selected locations across the West Bank and Gaza.
In the recent wave of terror attacks against Israelis, 22 Israelis have been killed and 252 wounded – 21 seriously. Over 90 Palestinians have been killed, of whom at least 69 were terrorists.
Since 13th September 2015, there have been around 89 stabbing attacks, 32 shootings, and 14 car ramming attacks.
President Abbas has failed to condemn the violence and has previously stated: “We welcome every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem… With the help of Allah, every shaheed (martyr) will be in heaven, and every wounded will get his reward”.
The Palestinian Authority and Abbas’ Fatah movement frequently praise terrorists as “martyrs” and “heroes”, and glorify them on social media. The PA has honoured killers with military funerals and monetary grants to their families, as well as naming roads and sports tournaments after them.
For the PSR’s full report on the December 2015 poll, click here.
