Three out of four Palestinians want President Mahmoud Abbas to resign

The vast majority of Palestinians are done with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

And they want him to go – now.

A new poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research finds that 74% of Palestinians want Abbas to resign.

Only 22% believe Abbas should remain in office.

“The levels of dissatisfaction with the performance of President Abbas and the demand for his resignation remain very high as about three quarters continue to make that demand,” noted the pollsters.

The poll also reveals that Palestinians fear speaking out against the Palestinian Authority (PA), and against Hamas.

This is particularly concerning given that residents of both the West Bank and Gaza believe that the state of democracy and human rights where they live is terrible.

Also noteworthy: More than half of Palestinians say they do not support a two-state solution.

“Support for the concept of the two-state solution stands at 46% and opposition stands at 53%,” the pollsters noted.

However, one month ago only 36% said they supported a two-state solution, so support for a peaceful outcome is growing.

Curiously, “support for the two-state solution is higher among men (48%) compared to women (43%).”

Some 64% of Fatah supporters favor a two-state solution.

Only 31% of Hamas supporters do.

“When asked about the most effective means of ending the Israeli occupation, the public split into three groups: 44% chose armed struggle, 36% negotiations, and 16% popular resistance,” the pollsters found.

Other key findings:

• “We asked Palestinians to evaluate people’s ability to criticize the authority without fear in the area where they live, 71% of West Bankers believe that people in their area cannot criticize the PA without fear. In the Gaza Strip, 62% say people in that area cannot criticize Hamas’ authority without fear; 28% of West Bankers and 38% of Gazans say people in their areas can do that without fear.”
• “We asked the public to evaluate the status of democracy and human rights in the areas where they live, under the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and under Hamas’ control in the Gaza Strip: 22% of West Bankers and 29% of Gazans describe these conditions as good or very good, 50% of West Bankers and 35% of Gazans describe them as bad or very bad, and the rest describe the conditions as neither good nor bad.”

“Total size of the sample is 1800 adults interviewed face to face in 120 randomly selected locations,” noted the press release. “Margin of error is +/-3%.”