Do Abbas And Fayyad Even Know What Palestinians Want?

While Palestinian leaders spout ideology, they don't seem to have a clue about what the Palestinian Arabs want.

For one thing, the ban on Palestinians working in the settlements has not worked:

The Palestinian Authority has reconsidered a proposal that would have barred Palestinian laborers from working in West Bank Jewish settlements.

Although several PA officials, notably Economy Minister Hassan Abu Libdeh and Prime Minister Salad Fayyad, came out in favor of such a move at the beginning of the year [2010], it appears the PA has decided not to push for legislation on the issue because it is unable to offer the workers alternative employment.

Now Jackson Diehl writes about a survey done by Pechter Middle East Polls indicating that Arabs living in East Jerusalem are not eager to live in a Palestinian state:

The awkward fact is that the 270,000 Arabs who live in East Jerusalem may not be very enthusiastic about joining Palestine. The survey, which was designed and supervised by former State Department Middle East researcher David Pollock, found that only 30 percent said they would prefer to be citizens of Palestine in a two-state solution, while 35 percent said they would choose Israeli citizenship. (The rest said they didn't know or refused to answer.) Forty percent said they would consider moving to another neighborhood in order to become a citizen of Israel rather than Palestine, and 54 percent said that if their neighborhood were assigned to Israel, they would not move to Palestine.

You can read a detailed analysis of the poll and how it was done here.

The fact is that the Arabs surveyed indicated they prefer the jobs, schools, health care and welfare benefits that Israel has to offer over what is available in a Palestinian state.

As Diehl puts it, "their nationalism is not strong enough for them to set aside these advantages in order to live in an Arab country."--this in spite of the fact that the Arabs living in East Jerusalem report that they suffer from discrimination.

One point that surprised Diehl is that:

Remarkably, 56 percent said they traveled inside Israel at least once a week; 60 percent said access to its Mediterranean beaches was "very important" or "moderately important" to them.

While there are issues of discrimination, East Jerusalem Arabs travel freely in Israel.

Diehl also notes that the poll is limited to East Jerusalem Arab--and in fact we are dealing with 3 different groups of Arabs:

It's important to note that East Jerusalem Palestinians are different from West Bank or Gaza Palestinians -- they live on Israel's side of its West Bank barrier and hold "blue cards" that allow them access to Israeli jobs, health care, and welfare payments. Many are middle class by Middle Eastern standards -- 44 percent of those surveyed had household incomes of more than $1,300 per month. Broadly, they resemble Israel's Arab citizens, who have also been shown in polls to prefer remaining in Israel to joining a Palestinian state. [emphasis]

Abbas and Fayyad should read this poll.
It's about time they got to know their people better.

Technorati Tag: Pechter Poll and East Jerusalem and Palestinians.