Scary Poll: Support For Oct 7th Massacre Rising Among Palestinians

A public opinion poll was recently conducted by the Palestinian Center for Survey Research led by Dr. Khalil Shikaki, reporting on the opinions of Palestinians more than eight months after the October 7th attack began the war between Hamas and Israel.

The survey reported that 73 percent of all Palestinians (those living in Judea and Samaria as well as Gaza) support Hamas' decision to launch the October 7 attacks on Israel. Only 57 percent of Gazans supported the Hamas decision. This has risen from an overall support of 71 percent reported three months ago.

PCPSR posited that the high level of backing for the brutal assault was likely tied to the belief among more than 80 percent of Palestinians that the massacre of Israelis brought "long-sought global attention to the Palestinian struggle for statehood" and did not necessarily reflect support for the atrocities unleashed by Hamas on Israeli civilians. However, it did not provide a basis for that suggestion. 

Almost all Palestinians think Israel is committing war crimes while almost all believe Hamas is not committing war crimes in the current war," PCSR reported. "Moreover, more than 90% believe that Hamas did not commit any atrocities against Israeli civilians during its October 7th offensive."

This may also be linked to the fact that 80 percent of Palestinians reported that a family member had been killed or wounded in the conflict. 

The survey reported that only one in five Palestinians had seen videos showing atrocities committed by Hamas. The findings show that those who have seen the videos are almost 10 times more likely to think that Hamas may have committed atrocities on October 7.

65 percent of the surveyed say they oppose the two-state solution (despite a 30 percent increase among Gazans since the last poll). 63 percent support armed resistance, and 54 percent of Palestinians prefer armed conflict as a solution to end Israeli rule and establish a Palestinian state. Only a quarter of the Palestinians prefer negotiations over violence, and 16 percent opted for "nonviolent resistance."

Only 1 percent of respondents said they wanted the Israeli army to be in control of Gaza after the war, 2 percent chose the UN, and 1 percent chose one or more other Arab states. 75 percent of respondents reject the idea of deploying a joint Arab peacekeeping force in the Gaza Strip as a "day after the war" solution.

Overall satisfaction with Hamas and Yahya Sinwar among the general Palestinian population has markedly increased from 36 percent to 40 percent, as reported in a similar poll conducted three months ago.  By contrast, satisfaction with Fatah has dropped to 20 percent, and support for President Abbas has dropped to 12 percent.

41 percent of Palestinians in Judea and Samaria responded that they support Hamas (compared to 35 percent three months ago), while 17 percent support Fatah (compared to 12 percent three months ago).

In the Gaza Strip, support for Hamas today stands at 38 percent (34 percent three months ago) and support for Fatah at 24 percent (25 percent three months ago).

Before the war, overall support for Hamas was 22 percent, and support for Fatah was 26 percent.

A majority of 63 percent  (compared to 64 percent three months ago) blames Israel for the current suffering of Gazans in the current war while 22 percent  (compared to 20 percent three months ago) place the blame on the US; only 8 percent  (compared to 7percent  three months ago) place the blame on Hamas, and only 4percent  (compared to 6percent three months ago) blame the PA.

79 percent of the general Palestinian population believes that Hamas will emerge victorious from the war, and 71 percent want Hamas to rule Gaza after the conflict. In Gaza, only 48 percent believe that Hamas will emerge victorious. This is down 8 percent from three months ago. 25 percent believe that Israel will win the war. 

PCPSR director Khalil Shikaki attributed the discrepancy over the predicted outcome of the war to the different sources of information Palestinians have at their disposal in the two regions. He noted that Gazans have personally witnessed the war, whereas 83 percent of Arabs in Judea and Samaria receive their news from Qatar-based Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera's broadcasts in Israel were taken off the air on May 5, and its website was taken offline, its equipment seized, and its offices sealed by an emergency law allowing for foreign outlets deemed to be violating national security to be temporarily blocked. Israeli courts established that Al Jazeera content serves Hamas's goals "and does significant harm to state security."

Three-quarters of the Palestinian public is opposed to Saudi-Israeli normalization, even if it is conditioned on Israel accepting a Palestinian state and taking concrete and irreversible steps toward that goal.

47 percent believe that the first most vital Palestinian goal should be to end Israeli occupation in the areas occupied in 1967 and build a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital. 

By contrast, 31 percent believe the most vital goal should be to obtain the right of return of refugees to their 1948 towns and villages; 12 percent believe that the first and most vital goal should be to build a pious or moral individual and a religious society, one that applies all Islamic teachings; and 9 percent believe it should be to establish a democratic political system that respects freedoms and rights of Palestinians.

Originally published at Israel365 News