(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – A large number of Israelis would accept a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority under the principle of "two states for two peoples," according to a poll by the Peace Index Project. 64 per cent of respondents support the so-called two-state solution, while 33 per cent reject it.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – A large number of Israelis would accept a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority under the principle of "two states for two peoples," according to a poll by the Peace Index Project. 64 per cent of respondents support the so-called two-state solution, while 33 per cent reject it.
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 September, Salam Fayyad, Abbas’s appointed prime minister, proposed a framework to achieve statehood, declaring that Palestinians will be urged to establish "strong state institutions capable of providing, equitably and effectively, for the needs of our citizens, despite the occupation", and "to establish a de facto state apparatus within the next two years".
Polling Data
Do you support or oppose a peace agreement based on the principle of "two states for two peoples"?
|
Support |
64% |
|
Oppose |
33% |
Source: Peace Index Project / Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research / Evens Program in Mediation and Conflict Resolution of Tel Aviv University
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 514 Israeli adults, conducted on Oct. 12 and Oct. 13, 2009. Margin of error is 4.5 per cent.
