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(Algemeiner) In the absence of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks — which is, ostensibly , now — the majority of Palestinians support the return to an armed intifada against Israel, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research revealed on Monday.
According to the poll, 57% of Palestinians supported a fresh armed uprising, the last one having fizzled out around the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004. The Second Intifada, as it is widely known, led to the deaths of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians in a grisly melee of terrorist attacks and IDF operations that lasted nearly five years.
The survey noted a bump in the share of Palestinians supporting a new intifada, saying it stood at 49% just three months ago, before the recent spate of violence surrounding Israeli presence at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem before the Jewish high holy days.
Still, 63% of Palestinians said they supported non-violent resistance, and 51% supported the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority, whose leader, Mahmoud Abbas, received dismal marks among those questioned.
In fact, 65% of Palestinians want Abbas, who replaced Arafat as president of the PA and has remained ever since, to resign, though 83% support Abbas’ much touted policy of seeking recognition for a Palestinian state in international organizations, such as the International Criminal Court.
An overwhelming majority of Palestinians, at 88%, think the PA should bring Israel to the ICC to stand trial for building settlements on the “occupied territories,” an Israeli enterprise most Palestinians (65%) think has nullified prospects for a two-state solution.
The two-state solution, which is the most widely accepted vision for Israel and Palestinians’ political future, was opposed by the majority of Palestinians, at 51%. The survey noted three months ago that 48% had opposed it, while 51% had supported the idea of Israeli and Palestinian states coexisting side by side, though, when factoring in the poll’s margin of error the difference is probably negligible. However, only 30% support a one-state solution where Jews and Palestinians have equal rights.
