57% support terrorism,
75% support kidnappings

New York – A new poll has found that nearly two-thirds of Palestinian Arabs — 63% — are inspired by Hizballah’s recent rocket offensive against Israeli cities and hope to emulate them. This finding is similar to the level of support for copying Hizballah’s methods that were found in July 2000, following Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from southern Lebanon, when 65% of the Palestinian Arabs said they supported Hizballah. The poll of 1270 Palestinian Arab adults interviewed face-to-face, conducted by 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 in Ramallah, also shows that a majority of Palestinians Arabs — 57% — support terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians within Israel’s pre-June 1967 borders and that three-quarters of Palestinian Arabs — 75% — support the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers as bargaining chips for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel (Jerusalem Post, September 26).

This finding of Palestinian support for terrorism inside Israel is consistent with past polls, including one earlier this month conducted by the Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies at An-Najah University that found that 61.3% of Palestinians support terrorist attacks upon Israelis inside Israel and a June poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy & Survey Research that found 56% of Palestinians supporting such attacks.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “This poll and some earlier ones are important for a number of reasons. It shows that Hizballah’s unprovoked aggression against Israel in August and the inconclusive war that followed was a victory for Hizballah, seeing that two-thirds of Palestinian Arabs approve of their acts and wish to emulate them. In revealing this, it further shows that Palestinians have not accepted Israel’s existence as a Jewish state and wish to wage war on her by whatever means seem effective. It also shows that a policy of unilateral concessions does not win Israel peace or Palestinian moderation, as both the unilateral withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000 and the Hizballah’s eventual large scale assault on Israel in August this year resulted in large majorities supporting the actions of Hizballah. In these circumstances, Israel must neither carry out any further unilateral concessions nor grant any other rewards or incentives to terrorists to continue their campaign.”