Poll: Arabs reject two-state solution

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BEIT SHOUR, West Bank, July 26 (UPI) -- Most West Bank and Gaza Strip Arabs do not want a two-state solution with Israel, an American poll conducted in cooperation with an Arab organization indicated.

American Pollster Stanley Greenberg and the Beit Shour Palestinian Center for Public Opinion in Israel's West Bank completed earlier this month the face-to-face Arabic-language survey of 1,010 adults for the Israel Project, an international non-profit group that provides Middle East information to politicians and the media, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The Post said the poll shows that the Israel Project, which is attempting to work with the Arab world to promote "people-to-people peace," has a tough task ahead.

Only 34 percent of the West Bank and Gaza Arabs accept the idea of two states for two peoples as the solution to the Israel-Arab conflict. The Arabs' real goal should be to begin with a two-state solution but then have it become one Palestinian state, 66 percent of the West Bank and Gaza residents said.

Regarding Jerusalem, 92 percent of respondents said it should be a Palestinian capital, 1 percent said the capital of Israel, 3 percent the capital of both nations, and 4 percent a neutral international city.

Seventy-two percent supported denying Jewish history in Jerusalem, 62 percent favored kidnapping Israeli soldiers and holding them hostage and 53 percent favored teaching of songs about hating Jews in Palestinian schools, the poll indicated.

Sixty-four percent of respondents said they supported seeking a Palestinian state unilaterally in the United Nations.

Only 22 percent, however, approved of the practice of launching rockets at Israeli cities and citizens and two-thirds of respondents preferred diplomatic engagement over violent tactics.

Further, 83 percent did not think the conflict with Israel should be among Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' top priorities. They thought the highest priority should be creating jobs, the poll indicated.

The poll has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.