TEL AVIV – A majority of Palestinians reject outright President Donald Trump’s peace proposal before it’s even released, according to a new poll published Wednesday.
The poll, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, showed that 62% of Palestinians oppose the resumption of talks between the Palestinian Authority and the Trump administration and 52% will not accept any framework for peace presented by that administration since “it must be bad for the Palestinians.”
Almost 27% are in favor of resuming dialogue with the American administration, the poll found, while 31% are in favor of examining the American proposal first before dismissing it.
Another 14% of Palestinians said the PA should accept the peace proposal “because it will certainly be better than the status quo,” the poll found.
The PA has boycotted the U.S. since Trump’s formal recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the subsequent transfer of the U.S. embassy to the city.
Just 6% said Trump was an honest broker for peace while 90% said his administration is biased in favor of Israel.
The poll was released days after the U.S. announced that it was cutting all its funding to the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA and a day before the 25th anniversary of the Oslo Accords.
Almost 43% of respondents said the PA was to blame for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, while 24% said the Gaza-ruling terror group Hamas was responsible. Another 8% blamed Egypt and 17% said “others.”
For nearly two years, the PA has withheld millions of dollars intended for the Gaza Strip as part of its efforts to force Hamas into relinquishing control of the coastal enclave.
A full 62% of Palestinians want PA President Mahmoud Abbas to resign, while 32% think he should stay in office. Abbas was elected in 2005 and his four-year term ended in 2009. There have not been elections since.
A total of 1,270 Palestinians were polled.
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