Amid Gaza Genocide, New Poll Gauges Palestinians Views on Coexistence with Israel

November 17, 2023

Gaza continue to reel under new massacres carried out by the Israeli army. (Photo: Anas al-Sharif, via Shehab News agency)

According to the AWRAD poll, 100% of respondents said that there is no “safe space” in Gaza.

A vast majority of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza say that they don’t envision a future where they can coexist peacefully alongside Israel, according to the findings of a new public opinion poll.

The densely populated Gaza enclave has been subjected to an unprecedented bombardment for more than five weeks as part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to “eliminate Hamas”.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israel has, thus far, killed over 12,000 Palestinians, including 5,000 children and over 3,000 women.

Amid signs of an increasing erosion of international support for Israel’s military response, which aid organizations say is worsening an already alarming humanitarian crisis in the besieged Strip of land, a large majority of Palestinians have indicated that they will be unable to “forgive” Israel for its actions.

According to a poll of Palestinians conducted by the Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD), some 90% of respondents believe that “coexistence (with Israel) is increasingly impossible” given the scale of its genocide in Gaza.

The poll, conducted between October 31 and November 7, also found that 98% reported they will “never forget and never forgive” Israel.

Around 1.6 million people, or about 70% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, have also been displaced, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles said on Friday.

According to the AWRAD poll, 100% of respondents said that there is no “safe space” in Gaza.

The poll also found that almost half of people, 48%, said that their homes had been destroyed or partially damaged and that 90% supported a ceasefire.

A total of 91% of respondents said that they had no trust in information provided to them by the Israeli military.

The poll was conducted via face-to-face interviews with 688 Palestinians.

AWRAD said its sample included people of varying socioeconomic backgrounds and had an equal representation of men and women.