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Fascinating -- thankfully, some Palestinians know that having a civil society is more important than pan-Arabism or hatred of Jews.
The survey, conducted by Pechter Middle East Polls in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations, asked a simple question that the leaders both in Israel and the Palestinian authority seem to ignore all too often: What do the people themselves want? And the people seem confused.
When asked if they preferred to become a citizen of Palestine, with all of the rights and privileges of other citizens of Palestine, or a citizen of Israel, only 30 percent chose Palestinian citizenship – as compared to 35 percent that chose Israeli citizenship. Another 35 percent either had no answer or declined to provide it...
When asked if they would move to a different location inside Israel, if their neighborhood became part of Palestine, 40 percent said they were likely to move to Israel, and 37percent said they will not move. In comparison, 27percent said they are likely to move to Palestine if their neighborhood became part of Israel, and 54percent said they will not move.
When asked to provide the top reasons they chose one citizenship over the other, those who chose Israeli citizenship stressed freedom of movement in Israel, higher income, better job opportunities and Israeli health insurance.
Those who chose Palestinian citizenship referred to nationalism and patriotism.
(Emphasis mine.) I'd say these numbers give hope. These poor people know what matters and know that their own leadership is unlikely to provide it -- in fact, has little interest in providing it. I remember when I was in Israel in 2005, I met a Druze guy who lived on the Israeli side of the Israeli-Syrian border. He had a little girl. He bitched and moaned about Israel and George Bush and Jews and...when we asked him why he was living in Israel as an Israeli citizen he pointed at his daughter and said, "For her."
I strongly suspect that many of those who answered that they "don't know" in this survey actually do know and would prefer life in Israel, but simply don't want to say it.
Now -- a question for you: do you suppose this story will get significant media coverage? It doesn't exactly suit the accepted narrative, does it?
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