Foreign Affairs
Poll: Palestinians Turn Against Knife Attacks On Israelis, Too ‘Inefficient’
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A recent study reveals that Palestinian support for knife attacks against Israel has waned, instead, a majority support a violent intifada.
The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), a non-profit think-tank and research institution based in Ramallah in the West Bank, released the results from a survey which showed that Palestinian support for knife attacks against Israeli citizens dropped from 67 percent in December to 58 percent in March. The same data showed that support for a coordinated, violent uprising would be preferable.
“There is a notable drop in the West Bank in the support for knifing attacks, due, it seems, to a rising perception in its inefficacy,” said PSR to Ma’an news agency. “Indeed, only a little over one-third believes that if the current confrontations continue as they are now they would help achieve national rights in ways that negotiations could not; the majority does not believe that.”
PSR’s survey found that 52 percent of Palestinians support engaging in another organized, violent intifada (or uprising) in order to achieve their goals. An even larger majority of Palestinians, 65 percent, believe that the ongoing violence evolving into an intifada would be preferable to peaceful negotiations. Support for another intifada was significantly higher in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip (75 percent) than it was in the West Bank (59 percent). Only 29 percent surveyed support peaceful negotiations.
Knife attacks from Palestinians on Israeli citizens has been a common theme in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for months, with around 200 people having been killed on both sides due to the attacks.
Intifada, Arabic for ‘tremor’ is the term used to describe violent uprisings from Palestinian groups against Israel. Thus far, there have been two official intifadas, one from 1987 to 1993 and another from 2000 to 2005. The first intifada saw 160 Israelis and about 2,000 Palestinians killed, while around 1,000 Israelis 3,100 Palestinians were killed in the second.
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