Background Despite
the rounds of dialogue held in Cairo, the Palestinian split still persists. The
new reality that emerged in the last two rounds is that the dialogue is
transformed into a bilateral debate between Fateh and Hamas irritating the
other Palestinian factions and independent personalities who participated in
the previous dialogues and issued separate statements explaining their opinions
and visions. On the other side of the
scene, the truce on the Gaza Strip borders is still holding and Hamas is
preserving it. In the West Bank, negotiations between Palestinians and the Israelis
came to a halt after the formation of the new Israeli government. More than one
Palestinian official declared that negotiation with Israel will not resume
unless Israel declares a complete cessation of all its settlement activities. On the Palestinian side, Hamas still accuses
the Palestinian government of arresting its supporters and advocates; Fateh
also accuses the resigned government in the Gaza Strip of hunting down its
supporters in the Strip.
The Results Following are the
results of the Palestinian Public Opinion Poll no. 38 conducted by the Center
for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies at An-Najah National University during the
period from 16-18 July 2009. The University sponsors all polls conducted by
its Center. Palestinian Public Opinion Poll no. 38 undertakes the new
political realities such as the Cairo dialogue, the national reconciliation,
the performance of the governments of Salam Fayyad and Ismail Haniyeh in addition to
political affiliations and other issues. The sample included 1360 persons whose age
group is 18 and above and who have the right to vote. The enclosed
questionnaire was distributed on 860 persons from the West Bank and 500 persons
from the Gaza Strip. The sample was drawn randomly and the margin of error is about
±3%; still 3.6% of the members of the sample refused to answer the questionnaire.