(07/03/09) -

Palestinian Majority Favours Two-State Solution

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The majority of people in the Gaza Strip and West Bank think the best way to end the Arab-Israeli conflict is to create two states, according to a poll by Jerusalem Media & Communication Center. 55.2 per cent of respondents share this perception, up 2.2 points since November 2007.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The majority of people in the Gaza Strip and West Bank think the best way to end the Arab-Israeli conflict is to create two states, according to a poll by Jerusalem Media & Communication Center. 55.2 per cent of respondents share this perception, up 2.2 points since November 2007.

In contrast, 20.6 per cent of respondents think a better way to solve the conflict would be to have a bi-national state on all of historic Palestine.

The former British mandate of Palestine was instituted at the end of World War I, to oversee a territory in the Middle East that formerly belonged to the Ottoman Empire. After the end of World War II and the Nazi holocaust, the Zionist movement succeeded in establishing an internationally recognized homeland. In November 1947, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the formation of a Jewish state.

In 1948, the British government withdrew from the mandate and the state of Israel was created in roughly 15,000 square kilometres of the mandate’s land, with the remaining areas split under the control of Egypt and Transjordan. Since then, the region has seen constant disagreement between Israel and the Palestinians, represented for decades by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Wars broke out in the region in the second half of the 20th Century, involving Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.

Around 750,000 Palestinians fled or were forced to leave their territory during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The "right of return"—under which Palestinians aim to re-occupy their homes in Israel—has always been a questionable point in peace negotiations. Hundreds of thousands of refugees from the war and their descendants still live in shantytown camps run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), next to Gaza cities and towns.

During the six-day war in 1967, Israel gained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.

Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas is currently heading the Palestinian Authority from the West Bank, endorsed by Israel and most of the Western international community. Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas has become the de-facto leader in the Gaza Strip.

In February, Israeli voters renewed the Knesset. The Likud party, led by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, secured 27 seats in the legislature. The far-right Israel Our Home, the Labour party, the International Organization of Torah-observant Sephardic Jews (Shas), United Torah Judaism, and the Jewish Home joined Likud in a coalition. On Mar. 31, Netanyahu was sworn in as prime minister.

Last month, Netanyahu said that Israel would agree to the creation of a "demilitarized" Palestinian state.

On Jun. 23, Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad gave a speech in Jerusalem, in which he declared: "I call on all our people to unite around the project of establishing a state and to strengthen its institutions (…) so that the Palestinian state becomes, by the end of next year or within two years at most, a reality."

Polling Data

Some believe that a two-state formula is the favoured solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict, while others believe that historic Palestine can’t be divided and thus the favoured solution is a bi-national state on all of Palestine where Palestinians and Israelis enjoy equal representation and rights. Which of these solutions do you prefer?

Source: Jerusalem Media & Communication Center
Methodology: Interviews with 1,119 adults in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, conducted from Jun. 20 to Jun. 24, 2009. Margin of error is 3 per cent.