Palestinian poll shows discontent with Hamas, Gaza war
63% of Palestinians back indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on long-term ceasefire, but still support rocket fire at Israel.
Gaza residents are unhappy with the territory's Islamic militant Hamas rulers and by its war with Israel last summer, a new Palestinian poll released Tuesday shows.
The poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research shows that half of Gaza residents want to emigrate, compared to 25 percent in the West Bank.
The center's director, Khalil Shikaki, said the 50-percent immigration figure in Gaza is higher than ever before and that among young people it is even higher, about 80 percent.
"There's a very high level of frustration we are seeing in Gaza more than at any other time in the past year," Shikaki told reporters by teleconference from the West Bank.
A majority, 63 percent, expressed dissatisfaction with "achievements compared to human and material losses" in the 2014 Gaza war that killed over 2,200 Palestinians and 73 people in Israel. Fighting devastated parts of Gaza and reconstruction has been slow, causing many there to ask if it was worth it.
Of those polled, 63 percent said they support launching rockets at Israel while a blockade is in place. The same number said they favor indirect talks between Hamas and Israel to negotiate a long-term truce in exchange for lifting the blockade.
Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade on Gaza after Hamas seized the coastal territory from forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007, arguing it prevents Hamas from getting more weapons.
Hamas has ruled Gaza with an iron fist since, leaving Abbas governing parts of the West Bank.
Only 30 percent said they can criticize Hamas without fear. In the West Bank, 32 percent said they could freely criticize Abbas.
Despite the numbers, the poll found that if free elections were held today with just Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh competing, Hamas would win in Gaza and Abbas in the West Bank, both by slim margins.
In Gaza, 39 percent of those polled said they would vote for Hamas, up from 32 percent a year ago. In the West Bank, support for Hamas has risen to 32 percent from 27 percent three months ago. Fatah weighed in at 36 percent backing, down from 41 percent in March.
Shikaki said Hamas's rising appeal in the West Bank could be attributed in part to frustration with a prolonged impasse in diplomacy between Abbas and Israel on a Palestinian state in territory Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Meanwhile, Abbas' performance rating had dipped to 44 percent from 50 percent at the outset of last year's Fatah-Hamas unity deal, which has still not yet been fully implemented on the ground.
The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research polled 1,200 people in early June for the report, with a 3-percent margin of error.
