A new poll has shown that a clear majority of 60% of Palestinian Arabs support the continuation of the current wave of terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians that has been ongoing since last September. During what has been dubbed the ‘Wave of terror,’ the ‘Intifada of the Individuals’ and the ‘Knife Intifada,’ in which over 30 Israelis have been murdered in a series of stabbing, car-rammings and other attacks carried out by lone Palestinian terrorists.

The poll, conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, conducted in the first week of March, found that, 75% of  Palestinian Arabs in Gaza favored continued murderous terrorist attacks, and 51% in Judea/Samaria, likewise, did so (Khaled Abu Toameh, ‘Poll: 60% of Palestinians support attacks,’ Jerusalem Post, March 14, 2016).

These finds are consistent with findings in numerous surveys of Palestinian opinion over the years (please see below).

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “This poll, tragically, merely confirms the results of innumerable earlier polls showing Palestinians approve of terrorism that targets innocent Jewish men, women and children.

“These findings simply underscore the fact that concessions to Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA), especially concessions leading to Palestinian statehood, would only help to produce the world’s newest terrorist state. 

“It would be folly for either Israel or the United States to support the establishment of a Palestinian state under such conditions and it is noteworthy that the former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon, former CIA director R. James Woolsey and pre-eminent Middle East historian Bernard Lewis have all come out in opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state under present conditions.”

List of polls showing majority Palestinian support for anti-Jewish terrorism:

• September 2013: A large majority –– 62% –– of Palestinians justify the use of suicide terrorism. In the words of the Pew Survey, “in some countries, substantial minorities of Muslims say attacks on civilians are at least sometimes justified to defend Islam from its enemies; in the Palestinian territories, a majority of Muslims hold this view.” Among Palestinians, 37% said suicide bombing was often justified and 25% said is was sometimes justified. Only 16% of Palestinians said that suicide bombing is never justified (‘Muslim Publics Share Concerns about Extremist Groups,’ Pew Research Survey, September 10, 2013).

• July 2011: A Palestinian Center for Public Opinion poll, sponsored by the Israel Project, found that 80% of Palestinian Arabs agree with the statement in the Hamas Charter calling for creation of Arab and Islamic battalions to fight the Jews. A staggering 73% agree with the hadith (Islamic tradition), quoted in Hamas’ Charter, about the need to kill Jews.  Only 34% of Palestinians accept the idea of a peaceful Palestinian state living alongside Israel as the solution to the Arab/Israeli war, as against 61% who rejected the idea. 66% said that the Palestinians’ real goal should be to start with setting up a Palestinian state alongside Israel but then move towards creating a single Palestinian-controlled state. 72% of Palestinians support denying Jewish history and connection to the land of Israel. An overwhelming 92% of Palestinians insist on Jerusalem being the Palestinian capital, as against a mere 1% who believe it to be the Israeli capital. Only 3% of Palestinians believe that Jerusalem should be the capital of both Israel and a Palestinian state, and 4% believe it should be a neutral international city. 62% of Palestinians support a policy of kidnapping Israeli soldiers and holding them hostage and 53% favor teaching songs about hating Jews in Palestinian schools. 22% of Palestinians supported firing rockets at Israeli cities and citizens. 65% of Palestinians preferred diplomatic engagement over violence by 65% to 20%. 64% supported seeking a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood at the UN, 37% saying it would bring a Palestinian state closer, while 16% thought it would delay it (Gil Hoffman, ‘6 in 10 Palestinians reject 2-state solution, survey finds,’ Jerusalem Post, July 15, 2011).

• October 2010: A Palestinian Survey (PSR) Research Unit poll (no. 37) found that 49% of Palestinians support suicide bombing attacks upon Israelis, while a virtually equal number (49.2%) oppose such attacks. 14% of Palestinians strongly favored such acts of terrorism, while 6% of Palestinians strongly opposed them) (PSR Research Unit, ‘Palestinian Public Opinion Poll No (37),’ October 24, 2010).

• October 2010: A Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research poll conducted September 30 to October 2 found that 51% of Palestinians supported the murderous August 31 terror attacks by Hamas which killed 4 Israeli civilians near the Bani Nayim junction, with only 44% of Palestinians opposed. There was higher support for the attack among respondents from Gaza (61%) than in Judea and Samaria (44%). An overwhelming majority of 76% of Palestinians opposed a PA crackdown on Hamas that followed the attack, whereas only 20% expressed support. Also, Palestinians oppose talks with Israel by a majority of 66% to 30% – 68% oppose in Judea and Samaria and 62% in Gaza (Chana Ya’ar, ‘Poll: Most PA Arabs Back Recent Murder of Israeli Civilians,’ Israel National News, October 5, 2010).

• March 2009: A new joint Israeli-Palestinian poll has shown that a clear majority of Palestinians – 54 percent – support terror attacks upon Israelis inside Israel, as opposed to only 42 percent who oppose such attacks. The poll, jointly conducted by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) in Ramallah, between March 1-7, 2009, also found that only 40% of Israelis support a return to Palestinian-Israeli final status negotiations before cessation of Palestinian violence, while 58% oppose such talks. (Press Release, ‘Joint Israeli-Palestinian Poll, March 2009,’ Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, March 15, 2009).

• January 2009: The Palestinian majority support for terrorism against Israel is similar to a January 2009 Jerusalem Media & Communications Center poll that found that 55.4% of Palestinians support continued suicide bombings against Israel, as against 37.6% who oppose it. (Jerusalem Media & Communications Center, Poll No. 67, January 2009)