Only 10% Say “Settlements”
Are Main Obstacle to Peace

NEW YORK – By a margin of nearly five to one, Americans oppose the Road Map’s prohibition against further Jewish construction in Judea-Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza, according to a new national poll.

Morton A. Klein, National President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), said: “The Bush administration’s Road Map plan, which calls for freezing Jewish construction and later expelling Jewish residents from the territories, is clearly at odds with the views of most Americans. The vast majority of Americans understand that preventing Jews from building or living in those areas, while permitting Arabs to build and live there, is ethnic discrimination. And that is morally outrageous and un-American.”

The poll, carried out by John McLaughlin & Associates, was carried out among a scientific sample of 1,000 American adults on May 21, 2003. It found:

* 61% Say Jewish Construction in Territories Should be Permitted: Asked if both Jews and Arabs should be allowed to build in the territories, as they do now, or if Jews should be prevented from building there (as the Road Map proposes), 61.5% said both Jews and Arabs should be allowed to build; only 13.5% said that only Arabs should be allowed.

* 63% Say Jews Should Be Allowed to Live in Territories: Asked if both Jews and Arabs should be allowed to live in the territories, as they do now, or if only Arabs should be allowed to live there, 63.3% said both Jews and Arabs should be allowed; only 9% said that only Arabs should be allowed.

* Only 10% Say “Settlements” Are Main Obstacle to Peace: Asked what is the “main obstacle to peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs” and given four choices —the ongoing Arab violence; Palestinian Arab non-recognition of Israel; Israel’s anti-terror tactics; and the existence of Jewish communities in the territories— only 10% blamed the Jewish communities as the main obstacle to peace.

* 64% Oppose Expelling Jews from the Territories: Asked if Jewish residents of the territories should be expelled (as the Palestinian Authority and the Road Map propose), 64.1% said they “disagree” or “strongly disagree” with expulsion. Only 16.5% “somewhat agree” or “strongly agree” with the idea of expelling them.

* Almost 2-1 Say Jews Have Strongest Historical Claim to Land: Asked whether the Jews or the Arabs have “the strongest historical claim” to Judea-Samaria and Gaza, 31.1% said the Jews; only 18.8% said the Arabs (the remainder were undecided or declined to answer).