JMCC - Poll No. 35, December 1999 - On Palestinian & Israeli Attitudes Towards the future of the Peace Process

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Text

last updated Feb. 4, 2010
published Jan. 12, 1999

Poll No. 35, December 1999 - On Palestinian & Israeli Attitudes Towards the future of the Peace Process

Summary: Introduction

• Palestinians and Israelis believe that hostilities will continue between Israel and the Arabs even after the conclusion of a peace agreement.

• The notion of peace and its consequences are viewed differently by both sides.

• The Palestinian and Israeli public continue to have major differences and the distrust in the intentions of the other side remains strong.

o The majority of Palestinians and Israelis believe that any future agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians will not bring an end to the hostilities between the two sides. 54.6% of the Israelis and 60.8% of the Palestinians stated that a “two state for two people” will probably or surely not bring the hostilities to an end.

o The majority of Israelis (65.3%: 72.7% of Jews and 4.9% of Arab Israelis) oppose the withdrawal by Israel to the 1967 borders. In fact 57.2% of Israelis believe in a Jewish State over the entire area west of the River Jordan. For the Palestinians, 78.3% want either a Palestinian or an Islamic state over this area.

• Both the Palestinians and Israelis perceive the solutions to the Jerusalem and Palestinian refugee issues oppositely.

o Regarding the future of Jerusalem, 72.5% of the Israeli pubic want Jerusalem to be the unified capital of the Jewish state and 57.9% of the Palestinians want unified Jerusalem to be either a capital of Palestine (32.9%) or the capital of the Muslims (25.0%).

o As for the future of the refugees, 52.6% of the Israelis want refugees to be settled in the place of their present residence, while 71.3% of the Palestinians want them to return to their place of origin in historic Palestine.

• Israelis are a little more optimistic about the future than are Palestinians.

o Although the percentage of Israelis and Palestinians who believe that the Oslo process will lead to a settlement between both Israelis and Palestinians is similar, this percentage is still a minority among both societies (42% among Israelis and 34.7% among Palestinians).

o Israelis are also more optimistic about the establishment of a Palestinian state than are Palestinians. Whereas 78.1% of the Israelis are either surely (47.3%) or probably (30.8%) confident that the Oslo process will lead to a Palestinian state, only 9.3% of Palestinians are surely confident and 42.2% are probably confident that such a result will emanate out of this process.

o Israelis perceive the Palestinian Authority more positively than the Palestinians perceive the Israeli government. Whereas 59.6% of Israelis think that the Palestinian Authority is genuine about reaching peace with Israel, only 23.5% of the Palestinians think that the Israei government is genuine about reaching peace with the Palestinians.

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