Nearly half of Israelis want Biden to relaunch negotiations with Palestinians, according to poll

  • According to a poll conducted by the Geneva Initiative, nearly half of Israelis prefer U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to relaunch negotiations with the Palestinians.
Updated 27 Nov, 2020

According to a poll conducted by the Geneva Initiative, nearly half of Israelis prefer U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to relaunch negotiations with the Palestinians.

The poll concluded that "A plurality of 49 percent support the relaunching of negotiations with the Palestinians under an incoming Biden administration", with data that comprised of 500 Israeli respondents.

However, making peace with the Palestinians took second priority, as 29 percent of the respondents stated that Israel should normalise its relations with Saudi Arabia, followed by 28 percent who voted for establishing ties with Palestine.

Respondents were also asked to select from four potential solutions to the conflict, in which 48 percent chose the two-state solution as the most preferable option, with only 11 percent choosing a one-state solution with equal rights for both peoples, an additional 11 percent picked a one-state solution in which Palestinians would have fewer rights, while 20 percent chose none of the above.

In addition to this survey, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research interviewed 1200 Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, which concluded that 43 percent of Palestinians support the two-state solution.

According to Bernard Sabella, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Jerusalem, the United States under President Biden will be a more "credible mediator" between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Under the Trump Administration cut more than $200 million in aid to the West Bank and Gaza, in addition to halting all U.S. funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) – an estimated $360 million per year.

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