November 20, 2007

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Most people in the Palestinian Territories still believe the best way to solve the Israeli-Arab conflict is to create two separate states, according to a poll by the Jerusalem Media & Communication Center. 53 per cent of respondents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip back this solution, up 2.9 points since August.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Most people in the Palestinian Territories still believe the best way to solve the Israeli-Arab conflict is to create two separate states, according to a poll by the Jerusalem Media & Communication Center. 53 per cent of respondents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip back this solution, up 2.9 points since August.

Conversely, 23.5 per cent of respondents think the best option is to create a bi-national state in of all of historic Palestine where Palestinians and Israelis enjoy equal representation and rights.

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. An independent Palestinian state is considered the main provision of the road map for peace in the Middle East, developed by The Quartet, which includes the United States, the UN, the European Union (EU) and Russia.

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. Abbas and leaders from the United States, Israel and several Arab countries are due to meet in the U.S. in late November, in a conference that will seek to set the tone for a future peace process that could include a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the creation of a Palestinian state.

On Nov. 13, U.S. state secretary Condoleezza Rice told an audience of Jewish Americans that Israel should be prepared to make big sacrifices in order to find peace in the region, saying, "In our view, the security of the democratic Jewish state requires the creation of a responsible Palestinian state."

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?

	Nov. 2007	Aug. 2007	Mar. 2007
Two-state solution: an Israeli state and a Palestinian state	53.0%	51.1%	46.7%
Bi-national state on all of historic Palestine	23.5%	30.0%	26.5%
One Palestinian state	8.9%	9.8%	11.0%
No solution	9.5%	5.4%	9.7%
Islamic state	2.4%	2.3%	2.0%
Others	0.6%	0.5%	0.4%
Don’t know / No answer	2.1%	0.9%	3.7%

Source: Jerusalem Media & Communication Center
Methodology: Interviews with 1,200 adults in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, conducted from Nov. 3 to Nov. 6, 2007. Margin of error is 3 per cent.