Only small majorities of Israelis, 59 percent, and Palestinians, 51 percent, support a two-state solution to the conflict between their peoples, the poll found. There is frequent friction between the sides, and the city has been a flashpoint of violence during almost a year of fighting.
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Hermann said she believed Israeli Arab support was so high because they believe any peace arrangement “would dramatically improve their situation in Israel”.
Settlers say they are returning to properties that belonged to Jews before they fled the area, following deadly Arab riots in 1929.
The Palestinian journalists’ union says that another 19 Palestinian journalists and students of journalism are in Israeli prisons, one of them for more than 20 years.
Yishai Fleisher, a spokesman for the Jewish community of Hebron, welcomed expanding the settlement, saying it “would be good news for the Jewish community here”.
Last year’s version of the poll found 51 percent of both Israelis and Palestinians supported a two-state solution.
According to an UNRWA statement released Monday, the “large Israeli military incursion” into the camp saw a “high number” of civilians injured by “live ammunition”, with soldiers raiding “more than 200 refugee households”.
Among Jewish Israelis, 53 percent support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
After two decades of failed peace efforts, and almost a year of low-level violence, distrust is strong.
According to the poll, 89 percent of Palestinians feel Jews are untrustworthy while 65 percent of Israelis harbored feelings of distrust towards Palestinians. In contrast, just 45 percent of Palestinians fear Israelis.
The Palestinian think tank and the Israel Democracy Institute, a leading research center in Jerusalem, surveyed 1,184 Israelis and 1,270 Palestinians, revealing little consensus on the parameters of peace and mistrust and fear of the other on both sides – along with some hope for flexibility.
Of more than 6,295 Palestinians now in Israeli jails, 692 Palestinians – including two women and 13 minors – are being held under administrative detention, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.
She also said the recent wave of violence had jolted Israeli society, which had been more insulated from the conflict than Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. Those arrests came one day after Israeli officials issued 38 new “administrative detention” orders against Palestinian detainees, including a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Nabil Abu Rdeneh, the spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Monday that the Palestinian leader is ready to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but only if he meets a series of conditions, including a freeze on settlement construction.
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After two decades of failed peace efforts, and almost a year of sustained low-level violence, distrust is very high, according to the poll, which interviewed 1,270 Palestinians and 1,184 Israelis in June.
