Majority of Palestinians expect Annapolis conference to fail

Date: 12 / 11 / 2007 Time: 12:15

Abbas and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met last week in advance of the Annapolis Summit [Ma'anImages] Bethlehem – Ma'an – 62% of Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories expect the international peace conference in Annapolis to fail. Only 35% expect the meeting to succeed, according to a new poll conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC). The data were released Monday.

Asked what they expected to happen if the conference fails, 47% said nothing will change in the general Palestinian situation, while 28% expect the eruption of a new Intifada, and 21.7% expected some form of third party intervention.

Support for peace negotiations with Israel is at its highest point since the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2000, with 67.9%, supporting negotiations in general. Asked the same question in April 2003, only 51.3% supported negotiations, and a mere 46.5% supported talks in September 2002.

53% of West Bank and Gaza residents support a two-state resolution to the conflict, with a Palestinian state alongside Israel. 23.5% prefer one bi-national state in all of historical Palestine, while only 8.9% believe the answer lies in the creation of a Palestinian state in all of pre-1948 Palestine.

Right of return

66.8% stress the need for the return of Palestinian refugees to their original homeland while 9.7% support their return to a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and another 9% support financial compensation to refugees as an alternative to return.

Level of trust in politicians and parties

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party enjoyed a slight rise in popularity relative to Hamas.

Asked to name the Palestinan figure they trust most, 18.3% said Abbas. Deposed Hamas Prime Minister Ismaeil Haniyeh came in second with 16.3%. Jailed PLC member Marwan Barghouthi came in third with 14.3%. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and former Fatah strongman Mohammad Dahlan each received 2.3%. Fully 27.4% said they do not trust any figure.

Asked another open question about the political faction they trust most, Fatah came in first with 40%, compared with 34.4% who named the group in August. Only 19.7% named Hamas, down from 21.6% in August.

Performance of the PA

50.3% expressed satisfaction with the performance of President Abbas, showing an increase in level of satisfaction compared with the poll conducted in August in which Abbas received (45.3%).

Comparing the performance of the Fayyad government in the West Bank, with the Hamas-controlled government in Gaza, 43.3% said the Fayyad government has done a better job. 24.8% said Fayyad's government has done a worse job, and 23.6% said there is no difference in performance between the two.

Internal split

Half of the respondents said there is a possibility to return to a national unity government through dialogue, and this opinion represents an increase in level of optimism on solving the crisis over the 46.8% who expected unity through dialogue in the August 2007 poll.

When asked whether the internal fighting in the Gaza Strip would be repeated in the West Bank, a large majority, 68.6% said there is no chance of seeing the similar events in the West Bank compared with 27.7% who expect internecine fighting in the West Bank.

79.6% do not expect to see Hamas take control of the West Bank like it did in the Gaza Strip.

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