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19 July 2005

The most recent economical survey prepared by Dr. Nabil Kukali revealed that:

(78.6%) Are worried about their personal security.
(80.9%) Of the Palestinians are worried about the naked subsistence of their families at present.
(78.1%) Evaluated their economic condition as bad
(62.3%) Are pessimistic about the improvement of the economic and political conditions.
(62.1%) Hold the United States, Israel and other donor countries responsible for the deterioration of the economic conditions in the Palestinian territories.

Beit Sahour - Information Section:

In the most recent poll prepared by Dr. Nabil Kukali and conducted by the    Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO) during the period from Oct. 26th to Nov. 1st, 2006, a random sample of (1000) respondents representing the various demographic specimens of the population in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip over (18) years has been interviewed. The outcome revealed that (80.9%) of the Palestinian public are worried about the naked subsistence of their families at present.  The most significant findings the poll has shown, Dr. Kukali, the Director of PCPO, said, is that pessimism is rising among the Palestinians about the possibility of improving the economic and political conditions, specifying that the rate of the pessimists reached now (62.3%). Compared with the outcome of a former poll published on 13.9.2005, one can perceive that the rate of the pessimists has increased by (33.2%) since it was at that time (29.1%). Dr. Kukali added that two-thirds of the Palestinian people evaluated their economic conditions as 'bad' showing thereby an increase of (24.8 %) compared with the outcome of the afore-said poll, in which the rate was (53.3%). He further indicated that (62.1%) of the Palestinians hold the United States, Israel and other donor countries responsible for the deterioration of the economic conditions in the Palestinian territories.

Dr. Kukali further pointed out that the indications of this survey should be taken very seriously because they abundantly show the dreadful extent of the recession that the economic and living conditions have experienced compared with the outcome of a poll conducted last year. This is a clear evidence, Dr. Kukali said, that the Palestinian citizen is suffering from an increasingly suffocating economical crisis due to the dominance of several problems caused by high rates of unemployment, rise in prices and the non-payment of the salaries of around 160.000 employees of the public sector for about nine months up to this moment. This hardship is substantially aggravated by the halt, or at least the drastic reduction of the financial assistance the donor countries committed themselves to provide the Palestinians with. Add thereto the refusal of Israel to transfer the amounts of money due to the Palestinians. Dr. Kukali remarked that these results simply call upon the donor countries, chiefly the United States, and also Israel, to reconsider their decision as not to further escalate the hardship that casts its shadow on the deteriorating economic condition of the Palestinian people.

Dr. Nabil Kukali said the results of the poll where as follows:

The concern about the naked subsistence
Responding to the question: "Up to which extent are you worried about the naked subsistence of your family at present? ",(43.7%) answered "worried", (37.2%) are "too much worried",  (13.0%) "not so much worried ",  (4.7%) "not worried at all" and (1.4%) answered "I don't know".

The economic conditions
(78.1%) of the Palestinians evaluated the general economic condition in the Palestinian territories as "bad" whilst (19.4%) said "it's mediocre",  only (2.0%) described it as "good" and (0.5 %) declined to answer.

Regarding the question: " Do you think that your economic condition will become better or worse during the next period of time? ", (22.1%) answered "better", (49.2%) answered "worse", (26.9%) think that "it will remain unchanged" and (1.8%) "don't know".

Whom to be held responsible for the deterioration of the economic conditions
Responding to the question: "According to your opinion, who is responsible for the deterioration of the economic conditions in the territories of the Palestinian Authority?",  (12.2%) answered "Fateh",  (24.6%) "Hamas", (30.6%) "the United States of America", (28.4%) "Israel", (3.1%) "the EU" and (1.1%) answered "I don't know".

Significance of the foreign aid
Responding to the question: "Up to which extent does the European and US financial aid contribute generally to the Palestinians' well-being?", (39.9%) answered "to a high degree", (47.8%) said "to a moderate degree", (8.5%) "to a slight degree", while (3.5%) said "to a nil degree" and (0.3%) "Don't know".

The personal security
Regarding the question:  "Up to which extent are you worried about your personal security ?",  (29.3%) answered "too much worried", (49.3%) are "worried", (14.3%) are "not so much worried", (5.8%) are "not worried at all" and (1.3%) answered " I don't know " .

The future perspective
(34.9%) of the respondents answered that they, notwithstanding the prevailing political and economical conditions of the country, are "optimistic", whilst (62.3%) said they are " pessimistic " and (2.8%) declined to answer.

The concerns of the citizen
Responding to the question: " What is your main concern at present ? ", (30.2%) answered " job / money", (35.2%) "the security", (12.5%) "the health" and (22.1%) "the future".

The content with the life
Answering the question: " How much are you in general content with your life? " taking into consideration that the answers were in figures from 1 to 10 where (1) stands for the utmost degree of discontent and (10) for the utmost degree of content. The outcome was in average (4.77), which means a fall of (0.9) compared with that of the last year, where the average stood at (5.67).

Methodology of the Survey Study:

Mr. Elias Kukali, a staff member of the Research and Studies' Section at the PCPO, said that all interviews of this survey were conducted inside the respondents' homes, i.e. face-to-face during different working hours, at least 5 hours a day, including the evening time, in order to ensure proper representation of those sub-groups of the population, which would otherwise be difficult to reach and selecting one individual in each household using Last Birthday Method. The choices were taken from a total of (150) election sites, from which (110) sites are located in West Bank and (40) sites in Gaza Strip according to the distribution of the Central Election Commission. These election sites were randomly chosen by using the method of the simple random sample. These in turn were the beginning of the random sample choice made from those regions in accordance with PCPO's long experienced methodology.
 
Mr. E. Kukali has further established that the margin of error was (±3.1%) at a significance and confidence levels of (5%) and (95%) respectively. He added that the rate of the female respondents in this survey was (48.9%) against (51.1%) male respondents. The distribution of the random sample between the Palestinian two major regions was (63.1%) in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and (36.9%) in Gaza Strip, and allocated as follows: (50.7%) for the towns, (31.1%) for the villages and (18.2%) for the camps.