A new poll of Palestinians has found that a majority of them support the October 7, 2023 massacres in southern Israel, and that if an election were held today, the Hamas terrorist group would win.
The survey, by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, found that 59 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank (also known as Judea & Samaria) said that the decision by Hamas to invade Israel two years ago and murder 1,200 Israelis and kidnap hundreds more was “correct.”
Perhaps most strikingly, even in Gaza, which has endured two years of war as a result of that decision, nearly half of respondents, or 44 percent, answered in the affirmative, agreeing that Hamas bringing war to Gaza was the right move.
Unsurprisingly, the poll also found that a majority of Palestinians explicitly rejected the very concept of a two-state solution and peace with Israel, suggesting that the obstacle was not a dispute over borders or other issues, but the idea of accepting Israel.
In response to the question of what is the best way to achieve a Palestinian state, a clear plurality, 40 percent, said “armed struggle,” namely terrorism. As Israeli political commentator Amit Segal pointed out, “according to this survey, after two years of war and utter destruction in the Gaza Strip, more than one-third of its residents still believe ‘armed struggle’ is their key to independence.”
These results offer many insights into what Palestinians are thinking, and they also deliver a powerful reality check to anyone thinking that a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians continues to be anything but an illusion.
Contrary to popular claims that Israeli ‘settlements’ or other Israeli government policies remain the obstacle to peace, this poll shows that the continued Palestinian refusal to accept Israel’s very right to exist remains an insurmountable challenge.
It is little wonder why Palestinian society looks this way. Thanks in part to the Canadian taxpayer providing funding to it, agencies like UNRWA (United Nations Relief & Works Agency) have provided school textbooks to generations of Palestinians, teaching them to see Israel as a foreign cancer that must be excised. The problem isn’t just textbooks, but UNRWA teachers who do likewise.
The same lesson is taught throughout Palestinian mosques and media outlets, where terrorism against Israel is glorified even in children’s programming.
But rather than face this indisputable yet uncomfortable reality that much of Palestinian society remains deeply radicalized, news media outlets and elected officials have instead swept this under the rug, offering flowery but empty rhetoric about peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
In his recent announcement of a recognition of a Palestinian state, Prime Minister Mark Carney said that it would help promote the cause of peace, and said that his government’s action “empowers those who seek peaceful coexistence.”
But what happens when a majority of Palestinians oppose “peaceful coexistence” with Israel?
If there is to be any peace in the future, it will require a thorough deradicalization in Palestinian society, where Israel is not demonized, where terrorism is not idolized, and where Palestinians are taught that their best future lies in creating a state built on prosperity, rather than the destruction of Israel.
Following the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two, the Allies embarked on an ambitious campaign to deradicalize the country from its fanaticism. Only after this was achieved could Germany develop and leave its dark history behind.
However, when Canadian leaders refuse to accept the reality that Palestinian society is deeply radicalized, and instead embrace a naive version instead, they enable Palestinian terrorism and rejectionism, and help push further away any hope of peace.
