PA president Mahmoud Abbas. Image Credit: Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Some 56 percent of Palestinians approve of recent “confidence-building measures” by the Israeli government, intended to improve everyday life for Palestinians.
Polling by Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Survey and Policy Research, found that 56 percent of Palestinians viewed the moves positively, compared with 35 percent who viewed them negatively.
Israeli defence minister Benny Gantz announced the measures earlier this month, including financial loans to the PA, more work permits for Palestinians to work in Israel, more Palestinian building projects, and legal recognition for thousands of undocumented foreign nationals married to Palestinians.
Shikaki’s polling also indicated more trouble for the PA.
78 percent of Palestinians want long-ruling PA president Mahmoud Abbas to resign, it found.
This was the highest number supporting his resignation he came to office in 2005 and an increase on 68 percent support in March.
Meanwhile, support for Abbas’s rivals in the terrorist group Hamas – which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007 – has likewise dropped, with 45 percent saying that Hamas deserved to “represent and lead the Palestinian people” compared with 53 percent in June.
Just 14 percent of Palestinians believed that Abbas’s Fatah party deserved to be in government, down from 19 percent in June.