Violence Makes Hamas More Popular, Latest Palestinian Poll Shows

(Bloomberg) -- Hamas, the militant Islamic group that rules Gaza, has become more popular in recent months in both the West Bank and Gaza, probably due to violent confrontations with Israel in these areas, a Palestinian polling center said Monday.

The majority of those polled in the last quarter of 2018 viewed recent confrontations between Hamas and Israel, which brought the two sides to the brink of war last month, as a victory for Hamas.

The poll was conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research between Dec. 12-16. Here are some of the findings:

• If legislative elections were held today, 34% would vote for Hamas, up from 27% three months ago. Support for Fatah, which rules the West Bank, was nearly unchanged at 35%
• 62% said Hamas emerged victorious from the most recent confrontation with Israel, while 31% think it didn’t
• Some 88% said Palestinians who sell land to Jews are traitors; 9% call them corrupt and unpatriotic
• 64% said the death penalty was an appropriate punishment for deterring land sales to Israelis
• Total size of sample was 1270 adults interviewed in the West Bank of Gaza with of error is 3 percentage points

To contact the reporter on this story: Alisa Odenheimer in Jerusalem at aodenheimer@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net, Michael S. Arnold

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