The most recent poll prepared by Dr. Nabil Kukali reveals that:

• (62.5%) of the Palestinians believe that the release of the prisoners from the Israeli jails would encourage them to support the peace process.
• (58.4%) anticipate the outbreak of a third Intifada in case the peace process ends in failure.
• (50.3%) are in favor of the resumption of the peace negotiations with Israel.
• (46.3%) support a public referendum in case Palestinians and Israeli agree to a joint text.
• (68.0%) believe that the intervention of the United States in the policies of the Middle East harms the stability in the region.
• (63.0%) are to various extent satisfied with the performance of President Mahmoud Abbas.

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 September 10 till 22, 2013, covered a random sample of (1110) 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 (62.5%) of the Palestinians believe that the release of the prisoners from the Israeli jails would encourage them to support the Israeli-Palestinian negotiation process.

Dr. Kukali, in his capacity as President of the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, said that the results of this poll reveal that the majority of the Palestinians are in favor of the resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, hoping that the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority will be successfully concluded in 9 months. The majority of the Palestinians, he added, anticipate the outbreak of a third Intifada in case these negotiations, which consumed till now two months, come to a halt without realizing and concrete results. Dr. Kukali furthermore commented that the poll showed the satisfaction of the majority of the Palestinians with the performance of President Mahmoud Abbas and his management of the negotiations. In addition, the poll results unveiled, Dr. Kukali said, that in case both parties come to an agreement, the deal should be subject to a referendum for its approval. He reiterated that this poll shows the great significance of the negotiations at present and the positive effect they would reflect not only on the Palestinians and Israelis, but on the whole region in particular and the world in general.

Prisoners Release

Responding to the question:”Do you believe that the release of the Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails would encourage you to support the peace process, or not ?”, (62.5 %) said “Yes”, (26.6 %) “No”, and (10.9 %) said “I don’t know”.

The Peace Process

(50.3 %) are in favor of the resumption of the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, whilst (39.8 %) opposed it and (12.9 %) declined to show their position.

And regarding the question:”Do you believe, or not, that the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority would bring in peace between both parties in the coming years?” (6.2 %) said “I strongly believe”, (34.2 %) “Somewhat believe”, (32.3 %) “Somewhat don’t believe”, (24.1 %) “I strongly don’t believe” and (3.2 %) said “I don’t know”.

And with respect to the question:” In case the negotiating team reached a joint agreement, how should – according to your opinion – such agreement be ratified?” (46.3 %) said “by a referendum”, (25.2 %) “by decision of the Palestinian Authority”, (13.3 %) “by a decision of PLO”, and (15.2 %) refused to answer the question.

Significance of the negotiations

Responding to the question:”According to your estimate, to which party, the Palestinians or Israel, are the peace talks more significant ?” (20.9 %) said “more significant to the Palestinians”, (40.5 %) “more to Israel”, (19.5 %) “are equally significant to both”, (5.0 %) “insignificant to either party” and (14.0 %) answered “I don’t know”.

The Israeli Government

Responding to the question:”Do you believe that the Israeli government is really willing to resume the peace negotiations or is not really willing to do so ?”, (7.9 %) said “I’m sure that it’s really willing”, (37.3 %) “I think that it’s willing to do that”, (18.3 %) “I think it’s not willing to do so”, (20.8 %) “I’m sure it’s not willing” and (15.7 %) answered “I don’t know”.

The US intervention

In regard to the question:” Do you believe that the US intervention in the Mideast policies is useful or harmful to the stability of the region, or do you think that it has no effect on the regional stability ?”, (13.2 %) said “useful to the stability”, (68.0 %) “harmful to the stability”, (18.8 %) said “I don’t know”.

Regarding a further question of the wording:”Do you think that the US intervention in the policies of the Middle East is good or bad to the Palestinians, or has no any impact on our country ?”, (10.3 %) said “It’s good for the Palestinians”, ((68.3 %) “It’s bad for the Palestinians”, (15.6 %) “has no any impact”, and (5.8 %) said “I don’t know”.

A third Intifada

Responding to the question:” Do you anticipate the outbreak of a third Intifada in case the peace process ends in failure” ?. (58.4 %) said “Yes”, (26.0 %) “No” and (15.6 %) declined to answer.

Performance of President Abu Mazen

On the question:”Which rating do you give to the performance of Abu Mazen (President Mahmoud Abbas) in managing the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority on a scale from (1) to (10), where (1) is the lowest rating (minimum) and (10) the highest (maximum) ?”. The average rating was (6).

With respect to the question:”Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way President Mahmoud Abbas is dealing with his post as the President of the Palestinian Authority ?”, (20.8 %) replied “very satisfied”, (42.3 %) “”somehow satisfied”, (22.9 %) “somewhat dissatisfied”, (12.2 %) “strongly dissatisfied” and(1.8 %) answered “I don’t know”.

Methodology of the Survey Study:

Mr. Elias Kukali, Head of the Quantitative Researches Department 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 (162) election sites, from which (121) sites are located in West Bank and (41) 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.

Mr. Elias Kukali has further established that the margin of error was (±2.94%) at a significance and confidence levels of (5.0%) and (95%) respectively. He added that the rate of the female respondents in this survey was (49.4%) against (50.6%) male respondents. The distribution of the random sample between the Palestinian two major regions was (62.2%) in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and (37.8%) in Gaza Strip, and allocated as follows: (51.7%) for the towns, (31.9%) for the villages and (16.4%) for the camps.

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