Despite the Gaza Flotilla incident, rise in willingness to compromise among Palestinians and Israelis, but two-thirds on both sides remain pessimistic about the future of the peace process

These are the results of the most recent poll conducted jointly by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah, between June 6 and 16, 2010. This joint survey was conducted with the support of the Ford Foundation Cairo office and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

Following Israel’s raid on the Gaza flotilla which resulted in 9 civilian casualties and a number of wounded soldiers and civilians, 63% of the Palestinians believe they came out the winners. Most Israelis (50%) put the blame for the grave results on the organizers of the flotilla rather than on the Israeli political echelon which approved the operation (28%) or on the military echelon which carried it out (13%).

There is an increase in support for the Clinton parameters overall package in both publics compared to 2009. The change is larger and is consistent across all parameters among Palestinians. Palestinians are now split half between support and opposition to the overall package (49% support and 49% oppose it). This level of support represents an increase in support of 11 percentage points from 2009. A majority of Israelis (52%) support the overall package, versus 37% who oppose it. This level of support is similar to that obtained in 2006 through 2008, and larger than the support indicated in 2009 (46%).

Despite the increase in willingness to compromise among the two publics, neither Palestinians nor Israelis consider it likely that an independent Palestinian State will be established next to the State of Israel in the next five years. Two thirds in both publics think that chances for the establishment of an independent Palestinian State next to the State of Israel are non-existent or low;

72% of Palestinians support the boycott on products produced in settlements, but 60% oppose preventing Palestinians from working in the settlements. 44% believe that the boycott will hurt the proximity talks, and the rest split between the belief that it will benefit the talks and that it will have no impact. About half of the Israelis think the boycott will make no difference, 37% believe the Palestinian boycott will hurt the talks, and 8% believe it will benefit the talks.

The complete poll can read here or here.

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The Palestinian sample size was 1270 adults interviewed face-to-face in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in 127 randomly selected locations between June 10 and 13, 2010. The margin of error is 3%. The Israeli sample includes 810 adult Israelis interviewed by phone in Hebrew Arabic or Russian between June 6 and 16, 2010. The margin of error is 3.5%. The poll was planned and supervised by Prof. Yaacov Shamir, the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace and the Department of Communication and Journalism at the Hebrew University, and Prof. Khalil Shikaki, Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR).