Poll finds Palestinians favor violence if peace deal fails

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Most Palestinians support violent confrontation with Israel if the two sides fail to seal a peace treaty by a mid-September deadline, a Palestinian survey found on Wednesday.

The independent Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) said that 60 percent of respondents said they favored clashes with the Israelis if a peace deal was not reached by September 13.

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A U.S.-sponsored peace summit between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak collapsed last month after failing to resolve key issues like the fate of the city of Jerusalem.

Negotiators from both camps have said they are still hopeful the sides will reach an agreement.

The survey, with a margin of error of three percent, showed 67 percent of Palestinians supported Arafat's refusal to compromise at the talks.

Some 63 percent of respondents thought Palestinians should emulate the Iranian-back Hezbollah, which waged a guerrilla war against Israeli troops in south Lebanon, from where Israel withdrew in May.

Fifty-two percent of the 1,259 Palestinians questioned from Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem supported armed attacks against Israeli targets, the survey found.

The militant Islamic group Hamas has been at the forefront of such attacks, launching a spate of bombings against Israeli targets that killed scores of people.

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Center for Palestine Research and Studies
  • Survey Research Unit
  • Poll 48: The Peace Process, Bir Zeit University Incident, the Status of Palestinian Democracy, Corruption, Elections for the President and vice-President, and Political Affiliation
Hamas.org
Palestinian National Authority Home Page
U.N. Information System: Palestine

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