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Analysis: Poll Indicates Support by Both Israelis and Palestinians for Non-Violent Movement to Create a Palestinian State
All Things Considered: August 28, 2002
 Mideast Poll
JACKI LYDEN, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Jacki Lyden.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
And I'm Robert Siegel.
After two years of violent conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, a new poll has found a large majority of the population on both sides would support a non-violent movement for the creation of a Palestinian state. From Jerusalem, NPR's Linda Gradstein reports.
LINDA GRADSTEIN reporting:
The poll was released by Search for Common Ground, a Washington-based non-governmental organization dedicated to conflict resolution. Five hundred Israelis were interviewed by an Israeli polling firm, and 600 Palestinians by the Palestinian-run Jerusalem Media and Communications Center. Steve Kull, the director of Programs on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, supervised the survey.
Mr. STEVE KULL (Director, Programs on International Policy Attitudes): There are signs on both sides that they also have doubts about whether what they're doing is working, and there are signs of readiness to try something new. On the Palestinian side, there's very strong support for trying non-violent methods and a readiness to participate in such non-violent action, numbers that if they were mobilized would represent hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
GRADSTEIN: More than half of the Palestinians told the pollsters they would participate in non-violent actions such as boycotts and mass civil disobedience. Kull acknowledged that other polls have indicated most Palestinians also support violent actions such as suicide bombings. He said Palestinians believe all forms of resistance, both violent and non-violent, are acceptable.
On the Israeli side, the pollsters said they were surprised by what they found. Kull said more than three-quarters of Israeli Jews surveyed said the Palestinians have a legitimate right to seek a Palestinian state, provided they use non-violent means. Yet the Israeli respondents also said they remained deeply skeptical that Palestinians will embrace non-violence.
Mr. KULL: Israelis show great doubts that such a non-violent movement will emerge, and Palestinians show great doubts that the Israelis will do anything but simply try to snuff out this movement. But in fact, there are indications on both sides that there may, in fact, be a readiness to try new approaches. And if the Palestinian resistance was rechanneled into non-violent forms and Israel responded by effectively rewarding it rather than punishing it, this could gradually begin to build a kind of self-reinforcing cycle.
GRADSTEIN: This survey was published after almost two years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting that has left over 2,000 people dead, more than two-thirds of them Palestinians. It also comes as Israeli and Palestinian officials recently agreed on a joint security plan for Israeli troops to pull out of some areas of the West Bank and Gaza and Palestinian troops to take over.
In the Gaza Strip today, Palestinian officials said Palestinian police began setting up checkpoints to show they are capable of maintaining order if Israeli troops pull out. The police said they were coordinating with the Israeli army. Israeli and Palestinian analysts say both sides feel trapped by the ongoing violence and are looking for a way out. Linda Gradstein, NPR News, Jerusalem.
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