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Poll # 180: (90.7%) of the Palestinians, Seven Years After the Departure of the Late President Yassir Arafat, are Still Missing Him
Poll No. 180 The most recent poll prepared by Dr. Nabil Kukali reveals that:
Beit Sahour – Public Relations Office: The most recent poll prepared by Dr. Nabil Kukali, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (www.pcpo.org) during the period from October 4 till 18, 2011, covered a random sample of (1008) Palestinian respondents representing the various demographic specimens of adult Palestinians (18 years and above) living in the west Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. It revealed that (90.7%) of the Palestinian public still miss Late president Yassir Arafat seven years after his departure. Dr. Kukali, in his capacity as President of the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, said that a striking majority of the Palestinians still hang on the leadership of the late president due to his patriotic attitudes and his clinging to the Palestinian constants, on which almost all Palestinians agree with him, regardless of their political inclinations or affiliations. Dr. Kukali further added that four out of five Palestinians rated the performance of President Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations very positively (good to very good). This appreciation came not only from his supporters and followers, but from the overwhelming majority of the Palestinian public, as they view that he has gone to the UN as a President and came back as a glorious leader of the nation. Dr. Kukali warned of the ominous consequences in case the Palestinian bid to recognize Palestine as the state # 194 at the United Nations would not be approved. The poll results, he said, clearly show that the Palestinians are clinging to their rights of establishing their own state, otherwise they would support the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority as to place the international community before their obligations. Dr. Kukali has stated that the Palestinian people wish to achieve the just and comprehensive peace, which should be based on mutual respect and the recognition of the rights of all parties. The outcome of the poll, he said, clearly shows that the majority of the Palestinians reject the outbreak of a third Intifada as they certainly aspire to achieve peace, stability and socio-economic welfare. Regarding the recent resolution of the Ministry of Higher Education, Dr. Kukali mentioned that the majority of the Palestinian public opposes the decision, since the average rating of the GCE is generally not considered by pedagogic experts as the right measure for academic qualification and proficiency. The ministry, he said, can make examinations for university graduates and thereby judge their qualification and standard. Add thereto, the evaluation methods of the students during their secondary school must be revised, he said, as to meet the era' requirements. Departure of the leader Yassir Arafat Responding to the question: “Seven years after the departure of Late Yassir Arafat, do you feel that you miss him or not ?”, (60.3%) said “Yes, I strongly miss him”, (30.4%) “I somewhat miss him”, (7.1%) “I don’t miss him so much”, (1.5%) “I don’t miss him at all” and (0.7%) said “ I don’t know”. Israeli Palestinians (Palestinians living in Israel proper since 1948) With regard to the question: “Are you strongly satisfied, satisfied, somewhat satisfied, somewhat dissatisfied, dissatisfied or strongly dissatisfied with the efforts of the Israeli Palestinians regarding their support for the establishment of the Palestinian State ?”, (18.5%) answered “ I’m strongly satisfied”, (36.8%) said “I’m satisfied”, (28.5%) “somewhat satisfied”, (9.5%) “somewhat dissatisfied”, (2.5%) “dissatisfied”, (2.4%) “strongly dissatisfied” and (1.8%) answered “I don’t know”. And regarding the question:” Do you view the Israeli Palestinians as part of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict or do you view them in a different way ?”,the overwhelming majority, specifically (82.3%), answered “I view them as part of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict” , whilst only (14.1%) said they "view them in a different way " , and (3.6%) said “ I don’t know”. And responding to the question:”Do you see a definite role for the Palestinian minority in Israel in the negotiation process ?”, (45.7%) answered “Yes”, (47.9%) “No” and (6.4%) said “I don’t know”. Performance of the PA-President at the United Nations In respect of the question: “ How would you rate the performance of the PA-President Mahmoud Abbas during his mission at the United Nations ?”, (66.5%) of the Palestinian answered “very good”, (15.2%) “somewhat good”, (8.2%) “not so much good”, (8.3%) “not good at all” and (1.8%) said “ I don’t know”. Hamas attitude towards the PA-President Mahmoud Abbas With respect to the question:”Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with Hamas’ attitude towards supporting / not supporting the PA-President, Mahmoud Abbas, at the United Nations during the 66th session of the UNGA last September ?”, (63.4%) answered “I’m not satisfied”, (32.5%) “satisfied” and (4.1%) said “ I don’t know”. A third Intifada Responding to the question:”In case the Palestinian National Authority fails to achieve a seat at the UN as the UN-member # 194, would you then be in favor of an outbreak of a third Intifada, or not ?”, (58.2%) said “I oppose a third Intifada”, (39.1%) said “I would be in favor of a third Intifada” and (2.7%) said “I don’t know”. The confidence in the leadership of Fatah and Hamas “Some people have confidence in the political leadership of Hamas, others in the political leadership of Fatah and some people have no confidence in both leaderships, which of these three categories is the closest to you ?”(56.5%) said they have confidence in Fatah leadership, (17.7%) have confidence in Hamas leadership, (23.8%) said “I have no confidence in both leaderships”, and (2.0%) said “I don’t know”. Optimism and pessimism Regarding the question:” In case the Palestinians’ efforts fail to obtain a seat of full membership at the UN, would you then be more optimist or pessimist than in the past for reaching an agreement about a final solution between Israel and the Palestinians ?”, (16.1%) answered “I would be more optimist than in the past”, (32.7%) said “my optimism wouldn’t change”, (24.6%) said” I would stay as pessimist as in the past”, (23.9%) “I would be more pessimist than in the past“ and (2.7%) answered “I don’t know”. Resolution of the Ministry of Higher Education Responding to the question:”Do you support or oppose the resolution of the Ministry of Higher Education to the effect of not approving university certificates of the students, who obtained in the General Certificate of the Secondary Education (Tawjihi) an average less than (65%) ?”, (68.2%) answered “I oppose that”, (30.6%) “I support that” and (1.2%) said “ I don’t know”. Performance of the PA-President (55.7%) of the Palestinians said that they are satisfied with the way the PA-President, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, is performing his duties as President of the Palestinian Authority, whilst (41.9%) said that they are not satisfied, and (2.4%) declined to express their opinion. Issue of the Palestinian Refugees In regard to the question: “Do you think that Palestinians – in exchange for having their own independent state and concluding a peace deal with Israel – should give up their insistence about the Right of Return, which Israel will never accept, or not ?”, the striking majority of (89.8%) answered:”No, they shouldn’t do that even if no peace deal would be concluded”, whilst only (6.8%) said “Yes, Palestinians should do that”, and (3.4%) said “ I don’t know”. And responding to the question: “In case the Palestinian leadership would waive the Right of Return and accept in exchange for that the monetary compensation, would you accept that too, or refuse it ?”, (89.5%) said “I would refuse that”, whilst only (7.3%) said “I would accept that” and (3.2%) said “I don’t know”. Resumption of the Peace Negotiations Responding to the question: “In general, do you support or oppose the resumption of the peace negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis under the present conditions ?”, (16.0%) said “ I support”, (45.9%) said “between both alternatives” (they are undecided yet), (32.9%) said “ I oppose” and (5.2%) said “I don’t know”. And asked to respond to the question: “Which of the following ways or options, according to your opinion, is the best for ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state: a) the negotiations up to the reaching of a deal between the Palestinians and the Israelis, (b) the non-violent resistance (peaceful popular demos), (c) working along with/ through the United Nations, (d) to hold an international conference that is authorized to impose a solution on all parties concerned, (e) violence, military actions, or (f) otherwise ?”, (17.6%) said “the negotiations up to the reaching of a deal between the Palestinians and the Israelis”, (20.9%) “the non-violent resistance (peaceful popular demos)”, (23.4%) said “working along with and through the United Nations”, (17.9%) said “by holding an international conference that is authorized to impose a solution on all parties concerned”, (5.5%) said “violence, military actions”, (10.5%) “otherwise”, and (4.2%) said “ I don’t know”. Peace between Palestinians and Israelis With respect to the question:”Now think of the future when your child becomes your age. Do you think there would be at that time peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians ?”, (12.0%) answered “yes, definitely”, (15.1%) “it’s most likely”, (28.4%) “it’s possible”, (27.7%) “it’s unlikely”, (15.8%) “definitely no” and (0.9%) said “ I don’t know”. Options in case the Palestinians’ efforts fail to obtain UN full membership Responding to the question: “ Assuming that the Palestinians’ efforts to achieve a full member seat at the UN fail, which of the following options you think is likely to take place to handle the Palestinian affairs, a) dissolution of the Palestinian Authority and placing the international community before the liabilities of the legal vacuum that would result from the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority and administering the resistance through the Palestinian factions, b) unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state and escalation of the resistance, c) keeping the status of the Palestinian Authority as it’s now, but developing new strategies for a better handling of the Palestinian issues ?”, (33.9%) said “option (a)”, (29.9%) “option (b)”, (20.3%) incline to “option (c)” and (15.9%) said “I don’t know”. Methodology of the Survey Study: Miss Rana Kukali, a staff member of the Research and Studies' Section at the PCPO, said that all interviews of this survey were conducted inside the respondents' homes, i.e. face-to-face during different working hours, at least 5 hours a day, including the evening time, in order to ensure proper representation of those sub-groups of the population, which would otherwise be difficult to reach and selecting one individual in each household using Last Birthday Method. The choices were taken from a total of (155) election sites, from which (116) sites are located in West Bank and (39) sites in Gaza Strip according to the distribution of the Central Election Commission. These election sites were randomly chosen by using the method of the simple random sample. These in turn were the beginning of the random sample choice made from those regions in accordance with PCPO's long experienced methodology. Miss Rana Kukali has further established that the margin of error was (±3.09%) at a significance and confidence levels of (5.0%) and (95%) respectively. She added that the rate of the female respondents in this survey was (49.8%) against (50.2%) male respondents. The distribution of the random sample between the Palestinian two major regions was (64.4%) in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and (35.6%) in Gaza Strip, and allocated as follows: (52.2%) for the towns, (31.0%) for the villages and (16.8%) for the camps.
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