New surveys of Palestinian opinion have found that nearly half of Palestinians (49%) favor suicide bombing attacks against Israelis, with an almost equal number opposed (49.2%), with 14% of Palestinians strongly favoring such acts of terrorism, while 6% strongly oppose them, while a clear majority of 59% of Palestinians aged between 18 and 30 favor Iran possessing nuclear weapons, as opposed to a mere 29% who do not (‘A poll Conducted By The Palestinian Center For Research And Cultural Dialogue – PCRD,’ September 30 – October 2, 2010; PSR Research Unit, ‘Palestinian Public Opinion Poll No (37),’ October 24, 2010).
Previous polls showing high Palestinian support for terrorism against Israelis:
· 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. An overwhelming majority of 76% of Palestinians opposed a PA crackdown on Hamas that followed the attack, whereas only 20% expressed support (Chana Ya’ar, ‘Poll: Most PA Arabs Back Recent Murder of Israeli Civilians,’ Israel National News, October 5, 2010).
- 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)
- March 2008: 83.5% of Palestinians approve of the March 6 terrorist attack on the Mercaz Harav seminary in Jerusalem in which 8 people, mainly teenagers, were murdered and a further 40 wounded; 63.6% support rocket attacks on Israeli towns, as against 32.6% who oppose it. (Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research poll, March 2008).
· September 2006: 57% of Palestinian Arabs support terrorist attacks upon Israeli civilians; 75% support the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers in a bid to obtain the release of jailed Palestinians terrorists; 63% are inspired by the Lebanese Islamist terror group Hizballah and seek to emulate it (Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) poll, September 2006).
· September 2006: 61.3% of Palestinian Arabs support terrorist attacks upon Israeli civilians; 52.5% support rocket attacks upon Israeli population centers (Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies at An-Najah University, September 7-9, 2006).
· June 2006: 56% of Palestinians support terrorist attacks upon Israeli civilians (Palestinian Center for Policy & Survey Research (PCPSR) poll, June 2006).
· February 2006: 56.2% support terrorism against Israeli civilians (Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC) poll, February 8-12, 2006).
· December 2005: 69% of Palestinians see terrorism as legitimate; 65% support Al-Qaeda actions in the USA and Europe (Fafo poll, December 22, 2005).
· April 2003: 75.6% of Palestinian Arabs support terrorism against Israeli civilians (Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC) poll, April 2003).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “Only weeks ago, ZOA drew attention to another poll showing that half of Palestinians support terrorist attacks on Israelis. Now we have another, adding to a long list of such surveys confirming this fact. How long must it be before governments, including our own, recognize that a peaceful Palestinian state living alongside Israel is not a goal shared by a majority of Palestinians? People who approve of terrorism that targets innocent Jewish men, women and children are not going to living peacefully beside a Jewish state.
“These findings, like those of dozens of other polls showing Palestinian attitudes towards Israel, negotiations and violence, 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 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.
“The finding that most Palestinians support Iran acquiring a nuclear weapons capability must also give policy-makers pause. It is not only an alarming finding in itself but also anomalous. When the bulk of the Sunni Arab world is deeply concerned about the possibility of Shia Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, Palestinians evidently do not share that anxiety. It is likely that the possibility that Iran could threaten Israel and the U.S. finds favor among Palestinians –something that should tell us something about Palestinian hostility to both countries.”