Poll: Palestinians Support Bahrain Boycott

An overwhelming majority of Palestinians supported the boycott of the U.S.-led Bahrain conference and view the participation of some Arab countries as an abandonment of their cause, according to findings released on Thursday, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The poll was conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, which said they interviewed 1,200 Palestinians a the end of June, and has a margin of error of 3 percent.

Some 80 percent of respondents agreed with the boycott and condemned Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan for attending, and Bahrain for hosting the first, economic, phase of the Trump administration peace plan. An even higher proportion—90 percent—are of the opinion that the U.S. is generally untrustworthy.

Consistent with those findings, researchers said that when asked to choose between economic prosperity and independence, “the overwhelming majority (83 percent) opted for independence; only 15 percent chose economic prosperity.”

As for the future, “The public is divided into three groups in its assessment of the most effective means of ending the Israeli occupation: armed action comes first, followed by negotiations, and then popular nonviolent resistance,” the center said.

“Findings show that the majority expects the future Israeli government, which will be formed after the upcoming election, to annex settlement areas in the West Bank, wage war against the Gaza Strip, and take measures that would bring about PA collapse.”

A majority of 56 percent believes that the two-state solution is no longer feasible due to the expansion of Israeli communities in Yehudah and Shomron, while 40 percent believe that the solution remains practical, according to the survey.

In addition, 71 percent believe that the chances for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel in the next five years are small or nonexistent, while 26 percent rate the chances as medium or high.