Those hoping that the Palestinians’ eroding support for Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas could be a stepping stone will be disappointed in a new poll showing that Palestinians support a convicted terrorist to succeed Abbas.
A July 4 poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research Center (PCPSR) found that a plurality of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip support Marwan Barghouti, who is currently serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison over terrorism charges, at 30 percent. The runner-up is Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at 23 percent.
Sixty-one percent of respondents also believed that Abbas needs to step down from his position as PA president, while 33 percent don’t.
Barghouti has become a bit of cause celebre among pro-Palestinian activists, as they have called for him to be freed from prison based on “the constant violations of international agreements and of Palestinians’ human rights perpetrated by the Israeli state.”
Barghouti’s record consists of him leading the terror groups Tanzim and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, both of which are the military arm of Fatah. Under Barghouti’s reign, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades launched several terror attacks against Israel, including multiple suicide bombings that killed more than 30 people combined.
In 2004, an Israeli court convicted Barghouti for three terror attacks that killed five people combined. Barghouti declared that peace could only be achieved when the Palestinians have their own state.
“The five people who were killed in these attacks that he ordered will not return to life,” then-Foreign Ministry spokesperson Silvan Shalom said at the time. “The widows and orphans will not get their loved ones back. But at least justice was done.”
As to why a plurality of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza would support a convicted terrorist to replace Abbas, consider the fact that a 2015 Anti-Defamation League (ADL) poll found that 93 percent of Palestinians tend to be anti-Semitic and 82 percent engage in Holocaust denialism.
