Untitled Document

Latest Poll:

Poll No. 162
Date: 22 September, 2007

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

(57.7 %) Would vote for Fateh candidate to the PA presidency, ( 28.7 %) for Hamas candidate.
(72.1 %) Are worried about their personal security.
(73.8 %) Of the Palestinian people are worried about the subsistence of their families.
(44.0 %) Hold Hamas responsible for the fights of Gaza Strip.
(70.6 %) Oppose at various degrees the entry of foreign and/or Arab troops into Gaza Strip.
(57.1 %) Oppose at various degrees the participation of the Palestinian leadership in the International Peace Conference called for by the US- President George Bush.

Beit Sahour – The Information office

In the most recent poll prepared by Dr. Nabil Kukali, being conducted during the period August 26 th to September 1st 2007 and published by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO), a random sample consisting of (1012) Palestinian adults of 18 years old and above, representing the various demographic specimen of the Palestinian society in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, has been interviewed. The result has shown that ( 73.8 %) of the Palestinians are at present worried about the subsistence of their families. In a statement, Dr. Nabil Kukali, Director of the polling center, said that the most significant finding the poll has shown is that Palestinians are now by far more pessimistic about the improvement of the economic and political situation than for example two years ago, indicating that the rate of pessimists reached now ( 62.6 %) compared with (29.1 %) in a previous poll published on September 13, 2005, which means a remarkable increase of (33.6 %).

Dr. Kukali said further in his statement that ( 57.7 %) of the Palestinians would vote for a Fateh candidate if presidential elections would take place now, whilst only (28.7 %) would vote for a Hamas candidate. He added that Mahmoud Abbas would score the highest rate ( 26.1 %), followed by Marwan Barghouthi (22.8 %) and in the third position Ismael Haniyyeh (19.7 %). Dr. Kukali further indicated that (44.0 %) of the Palestinians hold Hamas responsible for the fights of Gaza Strip several weeks ago and added that ( 70.6 %) of the Palestinians oppose, at various degrees, the entry of UN- or Arab troops into Gaza Strip. Dr. Kukali concluded his statement by saying that (38.2 %) of the Palestinians support at various degrees the participation of the Palestinian leadership in the International Peace Conference called for by the US-President George Bush.

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

Entry of UN-troops into Gaza Strip:
Responding to the question:" Do you support, or not, the entry of UN or Arab troops into Gaza Strip?" ( 47.9 %) answered "I strongly oppose", (22.7 %) "I somewhat oppose", (19.9 %) "I somewhat support", (8.9 %) "I strongly support" and (0.6 %) answered "I don't know".

And regarding the question:" Would you agree, or not, to the handing-over of Gaza Strip to the Arab League to administer it?" ( 43.5 %) answered "I strongly oppose", (29.2 %) "I somewhat oppose", (17.8 %) "I somewhat support", (8.2 %) "I strongly support" and (1.3 %) answered "I don't know".

The responsible side for the present situation in Gaza Strip:
With respect to the question: "Who, according to your knowledge, is responsible for the present situation in Gaza Strip?" ( 44.0 %) answered "Hamas", (24.1 %) "Mahmoud Abbas", (19.1 %) "Fateh", (10.2 %) "Ismael Haniyyeh" and (2.6 %) answered "I don't know".

Performance of the Palestinian Authority:
Responding to the question: "Up to which extent are you satisfied or not satisfied with the performance of the PA-President, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas?" ( 13.1 %) answered "quite satisfied", (32.6 %) "Somewhat satisfied", (27.4 %) "Somewhat not satisfied", (23.9 %) "Quite unsatisfied" and (3.0 %) answered "I don't know". ( 14.8 %) evaluated the performance of the Palestinian PM, Mr. Salam Fayyad at "very good", (24.1 %) at "good", (25.3 %) at "mediocre", whilst (17.2 %) evaluated his performance at "bad", ( 13.0 %) at "very bad" and (5.6 %) declined to answer the question.

President Bush's Call:
Responding to the question:" The US-President Mr. George Bush called on July 16 th, 2007 for holding an international peace conference for the Middle East. Do you support or oppose the participation of the Palestinian leadership in this conference?" (9.0 %) answered "I strongly support it", (( 29.2 %) "I somewhat support it", (27.9 %) "I somewhat oppose it", (29.2 %) "I strongly oppose it" and (4.7 %) answered "I don't know".

The clashes of Nahr El-Bared Camp (Lebanon):
(93.5 %) of the respondents are of the opinion that the clashes, which took place between Fateh Al-Islam and the Lebanese army in Nahr El-Bared Camp, don't serve the Palestinian cause, whilst ( 6.5 %) said the contrary.

A Palestinian – Israeli truce:
Responding to the question: "What's your attitude towards a Palestinian –?
Israeli truce at present?" (33.1 %) answered "I strongly support it", ( 44.1 %) "I somewhat support it", (13.5 %) "I somewhat oppose it", (8.5 %) "I strongly oppose it" and (0.8 %) answered "I don't know".

Peace between Palestinians and Israelis:
In respect of the question:" Now think of the future when your children are your
Age! Do you think there would be at that time peace between Israelis and Palestinians?" ( 3.5 %) answered "definitely", (17.8 %) "Likely", (20.3 %) "Possible", (23.7 %) "Unlikely", (32.9 %) "Definitely not" and (1.8 %) answered "I don't know".

PA-Presidential elections:
Upon the question:" Do you support a polling at present for the election of the
PA-President?" (35.0 %) answered "I strongly support", (26.6 %) "I somewhat support", ( 20.2 %) "I somewhat oppose", (17.3 %) "I strongly oppose" and (0.9 %) answered "I don't know".

(57.7 %) of the Palestinians said they would vote for Fateh candidate to the PA-presidency, whilst ( 28.7 %) said they would vote for Hamas candidate, (9.8 %) for other candidates, and (3.8 %) refused to answer.

Responding to the question: "Who is your favorite candidate you would vote for to be the president of the Palestinian Authority in the next presidential elections?" ( 26.1 %) answered "Mahmoud Abbas", (22.8 %) "Marwan Al-Barghouthi", (19.7 %) "Ismael Haniyyeh", (6.6 %) "Ahmed Qurai", (6.4 %) "Mustafa Al-Barghouthi", (4.2 %) "Aziz El-Duwaik", ( 2.6 %) "Salam Fayyad", (2.5 %) "Khaled Misha'l", (2.3 %) "Mahmoud El-Zahhar", (2.2 %) "Mohammed Dahlan", (0.7 %) "Otherwise" and (3.9 %) answered "I don't know".

Elections of the Palestinian Legislative Council:

In regard to the question: "Do you support polling at present for a new Palestinian Legislative Council?" ( 35.1 %) answered "I strongly support", (27.3 %) "I somewhat support", (16.6 %) "I somewhat oppose", (19.9 %) "I strongly oppose" and (1.1 %) answered "I don't know".

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? " ( 34.7%) answered "worried", (39.1%) are "too much worried", (21.8%) "Not so much worried ", (4.2%) "Not worried at all" and (0.2%) answered "I don't know".

The economic conditions

(68.6%) of the Palestinians evaluated the general economic condition in the Palestinian territories as "bad" whilst ( 27.7%) said "it's mediocre", only (2.9%) described it as "good" and (0.8 %) declined to answer.

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?" ( 40.1%) answered "to a high degree", (48.2%) said "to a moderate degree", (8.0%) "To a slight degree", while (3.3%) said "to a nil degree" and (0.2%) "Don't know".

The personal security

Regarding the question: "Up to which extent are you worried about your personal security ?", (39.8%) answered "too much worried", (32.3%) are "worried", (19.8%) are "not so much worried", (7.7%) are "not worried at all" and (0.4%) answered " I don't know " .

The future perspective

(33.0%) of the respondents answered that they, notwithstanding the prevailing political and economical conditions of the country, are "optimistic", whilst ( 62.6%) said they are " pessimistic " and (4.4%) declined to answer.

The concerns of the citizen

Responding to the question: "What is your main concern at present? " ( 19.8%) answered "job / money", (42.7%) "The security", (12.9%) "The health" and (24.6%) "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 ( 4.47), which means a fall of (1.2) 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 (±3.08 %) at a significance and confidence levels of (5%) and (95%) respectively. He added that the rate of the female respondents in this survey was (49.1%) against (50.9% ) male respondents. The distribution of the random sample between the Palestinian two major regions was (63.2%) in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and (36.9%) in Gaza Strip, and allocated as follows: (50.6%) for the towns, ( 31.4%) for the villages and (18.0%) for the camps.