The unpopular truth: surveys show that most Palestinians support Hamas and fellow jihadist compatriot groups

There have been no elections in the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank since 2005. There have been no elections in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip since 2006, in the aftermath of Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the territory.

This leaves many wondering how the results would pan out if the Palestinian political entities held elections today.

Have the Palestinian people come around to a more peaceful and tolerant approach to dealing with their Israeli neighbors, as some in the West have suggested?

In fact, many influential Western leaders, such as President Joe Biden, have advanced the idea that democracy in Gaza and Ramallah would bear peaceful fruit. In an October 20 address, Biden declared that “Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people.”

Thanks to the dedicated work of a Ramallah-based polling institute, we know how democracy would turn out in the Palestinian Territories.

And unfortunately, the results would not be pretty.

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), the Ramallah-based organization that surveys Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza, has been conducting conducting public opinion polls on the politics of the Palestinian territories since the 1990s.

A new PSR survey came out on September 13, just three weeks before the Hamas massacre.

That survey, and many completed before it, showed the same, troubling result: the majority of Palestinians prefer a jihadist to lead their people.

A plurality of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza (34%) prefer Marwan Barghouti to lead the Palestinian people in a united government.

Who is Marwan Barghouti?

He is a notorious Palestinian terrorist who is serving multiple life sentences in Israel for directing several attacks against Israeli civilians.

CNN reported at the time of Barghouti’s sentencing:

The second most popular leader in Palestinian society, according to the survey, is the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (at 17%), who currently resides in Qatar. Former Hamas leader Khaled Mashal, who also resides in Qatar, got 5% of the vote.

Haniyeh and Mashal are harbored by the regime in Doha, where they live a life of incredible luxury in 5 star resorts. When the Israeli ground invasion began, Haniyeh, speaking in front of a green screen in Qatar, demanded the sacrifice of Gazans, even their “women, children, and elderly,” for the “Palestinian cause.”

It’s worth recalling that Hamas’s terrorist campaigns did not begin on October 7th. Its founding charter clearly endorses violence as the answer to political disputes with Israel.

The survey reveals that the vast majority of Palestinians consider Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman of the PLO, to be an illegitimate leader. Four out of five Palestinians want him to resign, so that a more aggressive anti-Israel leader can take his place. Western governments and the Israelis consider Abbas, an avowed Holocaust denier, to be the most “moderate,” but on a scale that ranges from a society that encourages violence to a society that encourages extreme violence. Abbas, for his part, rewards murderous terrrorists and their families with the Palestinian government’s “pay to slay” rewards program.

Why are all of the Palestinian leaders so extreme?

Well, it’s worth remembering that this is a society in which 93% of its people harbor antisemitic attitudes. Palestinians who grow up in the Palestinian Territories are encouraged from a very early age to commit violence against Jews, an “accomplishment” that is rewarded as if it is the ultimate life achievement. That brainwashing continues from cradle to grave.

Unsurprisingly, the survey also showed that only one in three Palestinians believed that an Israeli state should exist alongside a Palestinian state. 58% said they would support an armed intifada (terrorist uprising) against Israel.

None of this information is presented to readers to advance a geopolitical goal, or to dehumanize people who identify as Palestinian. Nonetheless, the facts matter, and it’s important to reveal the truth about the culture of maniacal barbarism and violence that inundates the Palestinian territories.

That should explain why we never find any evidence of anti-Hamas rallies among the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza and throughout their global diaspora. Tragically, there are no anti-Hamas rallies because Hamas is in fact representative of the people it rules over in Gaza.