More than two thirds of Palestinians 'support knife attacks against Israelis'
Poll finds Palestinians losing faith in ever seeing a peace deal and an end to Israeli occupation
Israeli police search a Palestinian man at the Damascus Gate, in the Old City of Jerusalem Photo: EPA
By Raf Sanchez, Bethlehem
2:45PM GMT 15 Dec 2015
Two-thirds of Palestinians support the current wave of knife attacks against Israelis, an opinion poll has found, as the Palestinian population grows ever more gloomy about the prospects of an eventual peace settlement.
A survey found that 67 per cent of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank support using knives to attack Israeli troops and civilians and back the onslaught that has left 21 Israelis dead in the last two months.
The same violence has claimed the lives of more than 100 Palestinians, most of whom were shot dead while carrying out attacks, according to the Israeli government
The poll by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) was released shortly before a Palestinian man rammed his car into queue of Israelis waiting at a Jerusalem bus stop, injuring 14 people including a one-year-old baby boy.
A Palestinian man pulls up his shirt during a security check by Israeli paramilitary border policemen at a roadblock, set-up by Israel this week in an effort to stop a wave of Palestinian knife attacks Photo: REUTERS
The child’s foot was badly mangled in the attack and may have to be amputated. The attacker had a small axe in his car but was gunned down before he could use it, Israeli police said.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, ordered a new multi-million pound programme of reinforcing bus shelters in response to the attack.
The survey found the Palestinian public continuing to lose hope that there will ever be an independent Palestinian state, with 65 per cent saying that Israeli settlement building had destroyed any prospect of a “two-state solution”.
Only 45 per cent of Palestinians said they supported the two-state solution, the idea of Israel and an independent Palestinian state living side by side. Support for the idea – which is the official goal of both the Israelgovernment and the Palestinian Authority – has dropped six per cent in the last six months.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said the violence was being carried out by young people “driven by despair [at the fact] that a two-state solution is not coming".
Although officially opposed to violence, Mr Abbas said that it was “justified popular unrest” in response to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land. The Israeli government responded that there could be no justification “for wanton attacks on civilians”.
Although the survey found widespread support among Palestinians for the violence, the attacks have been carried out by individuals and are not part of a widespread uprising like the two intifadas of the late 1980s and early 2000s.
When asked why the uprising had not spread among the population, 43 per cent of Palestinians said it was because people were afraid of Israeli troops or the Palestinian security forces. Another 19 per cent said they believed people despaired that the attacks would make any difference.
Israeli police search a Palestinian man at the Damascus Gate, in the Old City of Jerusalem Photo: EPA
By Raf Sanchez, Bethlehem
2:45PM GMT 15 Dec 2015
Two-thirds of Palestinians support the current wave of knife attacks against Israelis, an opinion poll has found, as the Palestinian population grows ever more gloomy about the prospects of an eventual peace settlement.
A survey found that 67 per cent of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank support using knives to attack Israeli troops and civilians and back the onslaught that has left 21 Israelis dead in the last two months.
The same violence has claimed the lives of more than 100 Palestinians, most of whom were shot dead while carrying out attacks, according to the Israeli government
The poll by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) was released shortly before a Palestinian man rammed his car into queue of Israelis waiting at a Jerusalem bus stop, injuring 14 people including a one-year-old baby boy.
A Palestinian man pulls up his shirt during a security check by Israeli paramilitary border policemen at a roadblock, set-up by Israel this week in an effort to stop a wave of Palestinian knife attacks Photo: REUTERSThe child’s foot was badly mangled in the attack and may have to be amputated. The attacker had a small axe in his car but was gunned down before he could use it, Israeli police said.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, ordered a new multi-million pound programme of reinforcing bus shelters in response to the attack.
The survey found the Palestinian public continuing to lose hope that there will ever be an independent Palestinian state, with 65 per cent saying that Israeli settlement building had destroyed any prospect of a “two-state solution”.
Only 45 per cent of Palestinians said they supported the two-state solution, the idea of Israel and an independent Palestinian state living side by side. Support for the idea – which is the official goal of both the Israelgovernment and the Palestinian Authority – has dropped six per cent in the last six months.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said the violence was being carried out by young people “driven by despair [at the fact] that a two-state solution is not coming".
Although officially opposed to violence, Mr Abbas said that it was “justified popular unrest” in response to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land. The Israeli government responded that there could be no justification “for wanton attacks on civilians”.
Although the survey found widespread support among Palestinians for the violence, the attacks have been carried out by individuals and are not part of a widespread uprising like the two intifadas of the late 1980s and early 2000s.
When asked why the uprising had not spread among the population, 43 per cent of Palestinians said it was because people were afraid of Israeli troops or the Palestinian security forces. Another 19 per cent said they believed people despaired that the attacks would make any difference.
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