72 Percent of Palestinians Support Forming Armed Groups in West Bank, Poll Finds

T. Belman. The situation is volatile. Arutz Sheva reports, 428 weapons seized in police searches of Arab villages. TOI also reports on the poll in an article which provides more information. The war for Area C will definitely heat up. The object of the new government will not be to avoid conflict as in the past but to quash it and assert out power.

Poll surveying Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank shows significant drop in support for the two-state solution alongside rising support for armed groupsJack Khoury
By Jack Khoury, HAARETZ

Armed men attend the funeral of Palestinian Mohammad Herzalla in Nablus, last month.Credit: Reuters/Raneen Sawafta

A large majority of Palestinians supports the formation of armed groups in the cities of the West Bank, according to a poll surveying Palestinian public opinion on several issues.

The poll, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research and released on Wednesday, found that 72 percent of respondents supported forming armed groups similar to the Lion’s Den, which is based around Nablus.

Twenty-two percent were opposed to the idea. In addition, 87 percent of respondents said the Palestinian Authority did not have the right to arrest members of such groups to prevent them from attacking Israeli military forces.

As for the potential expansion of such groups, 59 percent said they expected new ones to be established in other parts of the West Bank, while 15 percent thought Israel would manage to arrest or kill members of armed groups, and 14 percent thought the Palestinian Authority would manage to contain them.

The survey also found that 79 percent of respondents were opposed to members of armed groups surrendering and handing over their weapons to the PA in order to prevent their capture by Israel, while 17 percent supported the idea.

Khalil Shikaki, director of the research center, said the poll results suggest a clear shift in Palestinian public opinion, particularly in the West Bank, reflected in the growing support for armed struggle against Israel. Support for armed groups has risen conspicuously over the past three months, Shikaki said, as a consequence of the escalation of violence in the West Bank and the death toll, which is growing by the week.

He also noted another figure: support for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict with Israel in the framework of the two-state solution has receded over the course of three months, now standing at 32 percent, according to the poll. A decade ago, support was at 55 percent.

“We are seeing a fairly clear decline in the percentage who support the two-state solution, given the lack of diplomatic negotiations and the ongoing killings of Palestinians throughout the West Bank,” he said.

The poll also asked Palestinians about their opinions on the results in Israel’s November election. It found that 61 percent of respondents thought the presumed next government, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, would be more extreme, while 30 percent thought there would be no difference compared to the current government.

Four percent said they thought the new government would be less extreme than the government formed by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. The rest had no opinion.

Concerns about expulsions are also evident in the poll, with 64 percent of respondents expecting the upcoming government to expel Palestinian families from East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and 68 percent expecting Israel to expel the Palestinian Bedouin communities living in the area between Jerusalem and Jericho such as Jahalin and Khan al-Ahmar.

Fifty-eight percent thought the next government would act to change the status quo at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, while 69 percent believed the government would also move to annex large parts of the West Bank.

The poll was conducted on December 7-10 and had a sample of 1,200 people representing Palestinians in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The margin of error is 3 percent. The poll was conducted via personal meetings with the respondents, all of them adults, of whom 487 were from Gaza and 722 from the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

December 15, 2022 | 12 Comments »

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  1. TED- Thanks for the concession, but still not the true facts. There were many religions tolerated by Rome, but if you read Suetonius you’ll see that the “Jewish superstition” was blamed for uprisings and various population unrest, and was banned.for a couple of hundred years.

    Still, if you’re satisfied, that’s fine. Not important today except as a matter of historical interest

    If you look up The Edict of Milan, (about 310-315) you’ll see the progressive path of Rome towards Christianity. beginning sometime after the Edict. until 380, long after Constantine. There were probably 7-8 Pagan Emperors between him and Theodosius. In those days some didn’t last long..

    Paganism was very difficult to eradicate in favour of a religion hardly understandable by the Pagan mind full of festivals and enjoyable ritual.

    TheTeutonic Knights finally “converted” the last official pagans in Europe when they invaded Northern Lithuania, With many battles and much slaughter, It still took over 200 years.

    The Knights themselves were destroyed by an alliance of Poles and other within another 50 years . .

  2. The reason “Palestinians” keep up their terrorist activity is that they know that the “world community has their back”.

    They are made to believe that their cause is righteous, and that everyone is with them against Israel (which is true).

    The weaker is Israel’s response, the more its enemies will terrorize it because this weak response encourages them to believe in their quick victory, rather than to appreciate Israel’s restraint, goodness, etc.

    Israel’s weak response makes the “world community” believe that Israel’s existence is not really important to the Jews themselves because it looks that the Jews believe in the Arab cause being more important than their own, and more important than Jewish deaths and suffering.

  3. @Edgar
    I just changed my opening sentence to “”Ever since Rome adopted Christianity in informally 325 AD and formerly in 381 AD,” etc.
    I hope that’s satisfies you and history.

  4. TED-

    I have just posted ANOTHER refutation of your assertion about 325 and AGAIN, it has not appeared, although printed. This is the THIRD but this is merely very brief , the others were detailed with documentation.

    Please have a look.

    The very same WIKI which supports your assertion, specifically says that THEODOSIUS 1 was the first Roman Christian emperor and made Christianity the religion of the Empire about 380.. I have written this and Munch much more now vanished.

    Items which I know you’d find interesting and persuasive. PLEASE SEEK and FIND.

  5. @Ted I disagree. In the domains of Islam as well as Christendom, policies alternated between toleration and even favor at times and demonization, ghettoization,persecution, massacre, expulsion, even forced conversions, I seem to recall, though aI have to recheck that. from the very beginning. For example, the 1066 Toledo Pogrom, yet Ottoman ships coming to rescue Spanish Jews. In Christendom, The Litvaks were German Jews who were invited to come as a community and given complete autonomy, at first.

  6. TED-

    The very same Wikipedia will relate to you that Theodosius 1 was the first Roman Emperor to adopt Christianity, and make it THE State religion. It astill took very many years to spread.

    Did you know that along the Baltic Sea area, when the State of Lithuania stretched from that sea to the Med, they were not converted to Christianity until late in the 14th cent.

    {There are letters existing that Viking and other Norse chieftains would compare with one another how many white gowns they’d collected. It was the custom for missionaries to give one to a chief who converted, that is , was “baptized” by sprinkling water on their heads. Many had 6-10 robes, In other words they did not understand the religion, would “unconvert” as soon as the priest had departed and waited for the next one to appear. They treated it as a joke, basking in the gifts they got from the missionaries including the robes.}

    I also have specific books relating the very same information. In one, a biography of Constantine, the origin of the legend that Constantine was the Frrst Christian Emperor was revealed to be the story of a monk who at beside Constantine on his death bed, urging him ton convert. The Emperor was in a room packed with witnesses as was the custom for all heads of state then, had been in a complete coma for 30 hours, and could not possibly have assented.

    The monk explained it by saying that just as he was expiring, his left eyelid quivered , which the monk took for “assent”.

    I have detailed all this on this site some years ago also.

    THAT is in a specialist book, not Wikipedia which says, quite correctly, that at Nicea Christianity, which had been banned, became an “accepted” religion of the Roman Empire which contained many religions.
    Rome was unusual in that way at the time.

    So du your duty and look up Theodosius 1st.

  7. @Skeesix

    Your comment reminded me of the fact that I forgot to mention The role of the Grand Mufti. I amended my comment to include it.

    As for the Koran and the Hadiths, yes there are some calls to kill Jews. Nevertheless I am right to say that Jews were allowed to live as Dhimmis.

  8. @Edgar
    Not exactly.
    Wikipedia

    In 325 A.D., the Roman emperor, Constantine, called a council in the city of Nicaea The council brought together bishops from all over Christendom in order to resolve some divisive issues and ensure the continued unity of the church.

    The First Council of Nicaea, held in Nicea in Bithynia (in present-day Turkey), convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325, was the first ecumenical conference of bishops of the Christian Church, and most significantly resulted in the first uniform Christian doctrine.

    Constantine himself may not have become a Christian but Christianity spread rapidly in Rome after 325.

    As for the seeds of antisemitism, yes you are right. somewhat.
    There is a historical record of Rome referring to Jews as a stiff-necked people. The Rman Wars took place because the Jews wouldn’t recognize the Roman Gods in addition to their own God. But for me, I don’t consider that to be antisemitic.

  9. TED

    My edit didn’t wotk so I was not able to add the following.

    The seeds of Anti-Semitism were planted long before the Church existed, and certainly, during a sort of Church post Kar Kocheba, The first , I believe 9 Church leaders of “popes ” retrocactive” was all Jews, byt after Bar Kocheba were not. There is some evidence found on a chard of earthware,that Bar Kocheba persecuted them because they wouldn’t supposrt his fight. It literabby says”take those who won’t fight away in chains.

    I believe it began during the Antiochian period. Mainly Antiochus Epiphenes. It was the first Major attempt to stamp put the Jewish religion.

    Recall turning Jerusalem into a “polis”, where Jews competed naked in the arenas and even had their circumcisions reversed by crude surgery.

    All reliably documented, and historically accurate.

  10. TED-

    You are in rare error.

    Rome didn’t adopt Christiaeity in 325. Constantine was never a Christian, and was a Pagan to the end of his life. He, by virtue of his position, was the High Priest of the old Roman cult of “Sol Invixtus”., and attended and performed all rituals.

    It is a common misconception because of the Council of Nicea over which Constantime “Presided”. He apparently didn’t “keep order” very well as 3 “dishops” were stabbed to death over minor creed disputes. I don’t know how many merely wounded. ..

    Christianity only became an accepted religion in the Roman Empire.

    Rome adopted Christianity under Theodosius 1st. around 380. It was Nicene Christianity and it occurred after he had recovered from a grave illness. (likely overeating)

  11. Ever since Rome adopted Christianity in 325 AD, The Church vilified the Jews and Christians, for centuries, hated or feared the Jews culminating in the holocaust.. There was a small respite during the Enlightenment. Hitler came along and stoked the fire of hatred using the big lie as a major tool. It was easy to do because any civility that existed was skin deep only, thanks to the Church.

    Mohammed first tried to win the Jews to his site in the 7th Century and modeled his religion on the Hebrew bible.. When the Jews rejected him, he turned on the Jews and rejected them.. Then followed 1500 years of Islamic Dhimmitude for the Jews to the present day…Remember this was a time in which the Muslims conquered and converted a huge part of the East. Even so the Jews were better off living among the Muslims then they were living among the Christians.. Under the Muslims, the Jews were considered people of the book and were relegated to dhimmi status but not killed or forced to convert in the main..

    This changed in the 20th Century after the Balfour Declaration.. The Jews reasserted themselves as Jews and not as Dhimmis and this outraged the Muslims. They wanted us to remain as Dhimmis. That conflict did not give rise to antisemitism until the PA stoked the fires of antisemitism with the big lie just as Hitler did. Thus the PA induced propaganda war against the Jews/Israel has led to an exponential rise in antisemitism and Jew-hatred.

    So the cause of much antisemitism over the millennium was various actors who fanned the flames in order to achieve victory over the Jews.
    But it all started with the Jew-Hatred of the Church.

  12. Has no one read the Koran and the Hadithas?????
    Does no one read and listen to MEMRI.org????
    They make it very clear what the end game is.
    Why are so many Jews ignorant or self deceptive?????
    Why is it so hard to accept and DEAL with reality
    When it is laid out so clearly…