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Growing Number of Palestinians Back One-State Solution: Poll | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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JERUSALEM (AFP) – A growing number of Palestinians support the establishment of a single state for Jews and Arabs including Israel and the occupied territories, according to a poll released on Wednesday.

The survey by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre (JMCC) found that support for a bi-national state in which Israelis and Palestinians would have equal rights had grown to 33.8 percent from 20.6 percent in June 2009.

During the same period, support for a negotiated two-state solution dropped from 55.2 percent to 43.9 percent, while 32.1 percent of respondents said the “peace process is dead” in response to a separate question.

Most Palestinians, 43.7 percent, support peaceful negotiations, while 29.8 percent support armed struggle and 21.9 percent support peaceful resistance as the best strategy for ending the Israeli occupation, the poll found.

Concerning internal politics, the poll found that 39.7 percent of voters would back the secular Fatah movement if elections were held this year, compared to just 14.4 percent would vote for the Islamist Hamas.

The Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas remains the most popular leader, and would receive 19.1 percent of the vote compared to his closest Hamas rival Ismail Haniyah, who would receive 11.2 percent.

However, nearly 30 percent of Palestinians said they would not vote in legislative or presidential elections if they were held now.

Pollsters conducted face-to-face interviews with 1,198 adults throughout the West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on April 10-15. The survey had a margin of error of three percent.

The international community along with Israeli and Palestinian leaders formally committed to a two-state solution with the 2003 roadmap agreement, and the idea of a single state has little support outside of academic circles.

Israel adamantly opposes a one-state solution because it would most likely have a Palestinian majority and result in the end of Israel as a Jewish state.