PNA Poll: 59% Favor Intifada 67.8% Support Arafat

SIS Poll: 59% of Palestinians in Favor of Continuing the Intifada and 67.8% Support President Arafat

GAZA, Palestine, October 29, 2003 (IPC) - - the State Information Service (SIS) of the Palestinain National Authority has recently conducted a public opinion poll in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip about the Intifada and President Arafat’s destiny.

The poll was conducted between October 14 and 18 to get the Palestinian people's opinion on whether the Intifada would continue a fourth year or not. The sample consisted of 938 persons, aged over 18 years, including 428 from the Gaza Strip and 510 from the West Bank.

The poll was distributed over all Palestinian cities, towns, villages and refugee camps, taking into account the variations in educational levels, vocational standards and ages.

The poll showed that 61.4% of the sample believed that the Palestinians have lost more than they have won during the Intifada, while 59.3% expected that the Intifada would continue. As well, 64.9% expressed support for President Arafat’s leadership of the Palestinian people.

As for the achievements of the Intifada, 43.1% of those polled believed that the Intifada has proved that it is not possible to impose an unjust political solution on the Palestinain people, while 18.8% said that the Intifada has boosted the Palestinian national unity, and 12.2% agreed that it has returned the Palestinian question back to the international arena. However, 25.9% said it has achieved nothing, while 26.7% attributed the Intifada failure to the Palestinian National Authority's incapability of successfully exploiting such Intifada.

14.8% others believed that the Intifada failure can be traced back to the Arab and international dictations on the Palestinians, while 19.5% hinted that the reason behind the Intifada's inability to achieve anything is being attributed to a military one, 11.5% said that the "Martyrdom Operations" were the reason behind its failure as 17.5% others traced it to other reasons.

63.2% of the sample believed that the Intifada has not accomplished the Palestinian people’s objectives, while 27.5% believed the opposite. 48.2% others pointed out that the Intifada’s achievements have been similar in magnitude to the Palestinian sacrifices, while 48.2% said the opposite.

As for the international support, 38.9% of those polled said that the reason behind international reversed backing to the Intifada was associated with the following reasons; the American domination of world politics, the Arab states and peoples incompetence to support the Intifada, the international NGOs failure to support the Intifada as well as the “Martyrdom Operations” inside Israeli cities.

As far as their position towards President Yasser Arafat is concerned, 64.9% of the sample believed that President Arafat should continue leading the Palestinain people.

The results also showed that 67.8% further supported President Arafat after Israel had declared it would expel him.

As for the Palestinian people's support to the Palestinian resistance factions, Fatah movement has taken the majority among those polled (30.3%), Hamas (16%), Islamic Jihad (4.3%), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (2.1), Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine(1.8%), Palestinian People Party (1.7%), Fida Party (0.7%), Independents (19.6%).

19.8% of those polled abstained from giving their opinion while 3.7% supported other Palestinain political organizations and factions.

As for the future of the Intifada, 59.3% of the polled expected that the Intifada would continue, while 17.3% anticipated the Intifada would stop, as 23.4% believed that no change would take place.

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