Most Palestinians to ‘vote’ for Fatah

JERUSALEM - Agence France-Presse

Hamas leader Mashaal is seen in this photo. Support to Hamas has decreased, a surves has revealed. AFP photo

Most of the Palestinians are in tendency to support Fatah instead of Hamas in future elections, a recent survey has showed.

A poll by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center said, if elections were held today, 42.6 percent of Palestinians said they would vote for Fatah compared with 20.6 for Hamas, in what was increase of several percentage points for Fatah at Hamas’s expense, since the November operation.

Settlement condition

On the issue of peace negotiations with Israel, almost two-thirds - 65.1 percent - said the Palestinian leadership should only return to talks if there is a freeze on Israeli settlement building.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly said there will be no new talks without a freeze, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected such an idea, saying Israel would only enter new negotiations without such preconditions. While most Palestinians - 36.8 percent - see talks as the best way to end the occupation and create a Palestinian state, a growing number of people believe that non-violent resistance is the way forward, with 30.4 percent in favor, up from 21.9 percent in the previous survey.

Of 1,179 people interviewed in Gaza and the West Bank, which is controlled by Fatah, Hamas’s political rival, 60.2 percent said “military action” harmed Palestinian national interests. And the percentage of people backing military operations against Israel, dropped from 50.9 to 31.1 percent from December to March. The survey was conducted from March 27 to 31 and with an error margin of three percent.