PSR Poll No. 35 - Majority of Palestinians and Israelis prefer two-state

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:49:45 EST

[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: PSR told IMRA that they expect to post the
complete results of the poll on their website in another week.
www.pcpsr.org ]

March 20, 2010

Results of latest Israeli-Palestinian opinion poll

Majority of Palestinians and Israelis prefer two-state solution over
binational state or confederation

A majority of Israelis and Palestinians prefer a two-state solution as the
most acceptable resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, as opposed to
a single binational state or a Palestinian-Israeli confederation.

This is the clear conclusion drawn from the latest public opinion survey
conducted under the auspices of the Harry S.Truman Research Institute for
the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the
Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.

The March joint Israeli Palestinian poll focused on the main political
outlines for a final status Palestinian- Israeli agreement. Those surveyed
were asked whether they preferred a solution of two states for two peoples,
a binational Palestinian-Israeli state, or a Palestinian-Israeli
confederation.

The results were as follows:
71% among Israelis and 57% among Palestinians supported the "two-state
solution," namely the establishment of an independent Palestinian state
alongside of Israel.

Compared to the two-state solution, only 24% of the Israelis and 29% of the
Palestinians supported the solution of a binational state, in which Israel
is unified with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to establish one state in
which Palestinians and Israelis would have equal rights.

The third outline for a political settlement is a two states for two peoples
solution, with joint political institutions which will lead eventually to a
confederation of the two states. Only 30% of the Israelis and 26% among
Palestinians supported this solution.

In recent months the idea of a binational state has increasingly been put
forth as a solution. However, it would seem to be impossible to implement
this option given the strong opposition to it in the two publics.

Palestinians and Israelis also understand that the most difficult solution
to implement is the bi-national state solution: 38% of the Israelis and 42%
of the Palestinians think so. Fewer respondents, think so about the
two-state solution (29% and 32% respectively), and even less (21% and 18%
respectively) believe so about the confederation.

The Palestinian sample size was 1270 adults interviewed in person in the
West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in 127 randomly selected
locations between March 4-6. The margin of error is 3%. The Israeli sample
includes 501 adult Israelis interviewed by phone in Hebrew, Arabic or
Russian between March 1-10. The margin of error is 4.9%.

The Joint Israeli-Palestinian Poll is supported by the Ford Foundation
(Cairo) and the Adenauer Stiftung (Jerusaelm and Ramallah). The poll was
planned and supervised by Prof. Yaacov Shamir of the Harry S. Truman
Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace and the Department of
Communication and Journalism at the Hebrew University, and Prof. Khalil
Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research
(PSR).

For further details on the Palestinian survey contact PSR director, Prof.
Khalil Shikaki or Walid Ladadweh, at tel. 02-2964933 or email
pcpsr@pcpsr.org. On the Israeli survey, contact Prof Yaacov Shamir at tel.
03-6419429 or email jshamir@mscc.huji.ac.il.

This joint survey was conducted with the support of the Ford Foundation
Cairo office and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Ramallah.

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PSR Poll No. 35 - Majority of Palestinians and Israelis prefer two-state