Workshop
Details
Three out of four Palestinians (73%) and Israelis (76%) are in favour of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority on a further disengagement from the West Bank. On both sides only a minority, however, would prefer a unilateral withdrawal of the Israelis. In addition to this, 60% of the Israelis are in favour of holding talks with Abu Mazen and with Fatah on a final settlement of status.
These are the results of the latest joint opinion poll from mid-March, which was presented by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) in Ramallah to the public in a workshop in Jerusalem.
As the joint opinion poll is mainly about the Israeli and Palestinian attitudes towards unilateralism in dealing with the conflict, Dr Yaacov Shamir from the Communications and Media Department of the Truman Institute started his presentation by explaining the position of the Israeli public regarding the term “convergence” coined by Ehud Olmert. As opposed to the “Gaza disengagement plan” of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Olmert, according to Dr Shamir, aims for the fixation of permanent borders in the West Bank within the next four years, which would entail giving up the Israeli settlements with the exception of the three major settlement blocks. The result of the common opinion poll of the Truman Institute and PSR was that slightly more than half of the Israeli population (56%) would approve a withdrawal of the settlers and the army from large parts of the West Bank and that 38% decline this. However, the large majority of those interviewed holds the opinion that this withdrawal should not, like in Gaza, be a unilateral action of Israel, but should be negotiated and coordinated with the Palestinian side.
On the one hand, Dr Khalil Shikaki, the director of PSR, stressed the large approval (86%) of the Palestinians to an Israeli withdrawal from large areas of the West Bank, but on the other hand he pointed to fears of the population that Olmert’s “plan of convergence” would lead to a expansion of the great settlement blocks and to a unilateral fixation of common borders by Israel. In addition to this, Dr Shikaki mentioned in his speech the great approval Hamas meets with in the Palestinian territories. According to a joint survey, the voters’ sympathy for Hamas is on the increase, while Fatah continues to lose popularity after the elections of January 25th 2006. The reasons given for this are the wish of a clean and corruption free government as well as the hope of an economic upturn in the Palestinian territories under a Hamas government. It remains doubtful, however, to what extent Hamas will be able to operate in this sense after all without the international aids. Regarding the peace negotiations with Israel, the poll arrived at the result that 59% of those asked dismiss an acknowledgement of Israel by Hamas, but that 75% are in favour of taking up peace negotiations.
Thomas Birringer, the Resident Representative of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation to the Palestinian Territories, underlined once more the great necessity of opinion polls for our understanding of Israeli and Palestinian societies. This understanding of the opinions of the people on both sides of the conflict is a precondition in order to make advances in the peace process.
In the final analysis of the common survey results, General (res.) Sholom Gazit, the long standing head of the Israeli Military Secret Service and supreme commander of the West Bank, stressed, that Ehud Olmert’s plan of convergence should build on negotiations with the Palestinian side, but that due to the refusal of the Hamas government to recognise Israel, this was unfortunately not possible for the time being.
