(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Most people in the Palestinian Territories continue to feel hopeless about their general status quo, according to a poll by An-Najah National University. 62.7 per cent of respondents are pessimistic about the Palestinian situation at this stage, down 5.2 points since September.

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. 19, international Mideast envoy and former British prime minister Tony Blair proposed four economic projects designed to promote prosperity in the Palestinian Territories and bolster peace efforts with Israel. Recognizing that the projects must serve a long-term goal, Blair stated: "Without hope of prosperity, rising living standards, and an economic stake in the future for ordinary Palestinians, the politics will never succeed."

Polling Data

Are you pessimistic or optimistic towards the general Palestinian situation at this stage?

Source: An-Najah National University
Methodology: Interviews with 1,360 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, conducted from Nov. 15 to Nov. 17, 2007. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

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