Tel Aviv – The majority of Jewish Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Jerusalem still support a two-state solution, despite the decline in the number of people supporting it.
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The results of the poll were “not amazingly encouraging”, but also “not discouraging”, said Tamar Hermann, an Israeli political scientist with the Israel Democracy Institute, who conducted the survey with pollster Khalil Shikaki of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.
Israeli security forces raided seven illegal Palestinian weapons mills in the Hebron and Bethlehem area on Monday night, in the largest crackdown of its kind over the previous year.
The poll, which surveyed 1,270 Palestinians and 1,184 Israelis, focused on the public’s views on a permanent peace agreement, ability to trust and compromise with the other side, and mistrust and fear of the other.
It is surrounded by watchtowers, most of which are located on Palestinian-owned buildings.
Egypt’s foreign minister said on August 21 that Israel’s policies and actions against Palestinians do not constitute terrorism.
Construction in Hebron, the West Bank’s largest city, is especially contentious.
Separately, Israeli military forces carried out overnight raids against several Palestinian houses across the West Bank and detained at least 15 people.
The settlements are built on land Palestinians want for a future state – a state which the new poll shows both Israelis and Palestinians still hope will be created.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry’s statement pertaining to labelling the actions of Israel in Palestine as “terrorism” were misinterpreted by local and foreign media, according to a statement released by the ministry on Monday.
When the Israeli soldier approached the vehicle, the assailant stabbed him, inflicting light wounds, she said.
According to the Israeli military, forces arrested two Palestinian suspected of trafficking weapons.
That compares with just two meetings between the Israeli leader and Barack Obama over the same period.
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89% of Palestinians feel Israeli Jews are untrustworthy and 68% of Israeli Jews said Palestinians likewise can not be trusted.
