Who supports dividing Jerusalem? Not the Palestinians

H/T Margie

The results of a study by Pechter Middle East Polls, in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations, recently reported by Ynet, points to a remarkable fact, one that will likely not be widely reported as it contradicts the popular narrative of Palestinian attitudes  ahead of the possible Palestinian bid for statehood in September:  none of the East Jerusalem residents who participated said they supported the division of Jerusalem.

Further, when asked if, in the event of a two-state solution which includes the division of Jerusalem, only 30% of East Jerusalem Palestinians surveyed said they’d want to become citizens of the new Palestinian state. 

When asked if they would consider moving to a city in the new Palestinian state if their neighborhood became part of Israel, 54% said they wouldn’t move, with only 27% expressing their desire to move.

Also, 44% of east Jerusalem’s residents seem content with their standard of living, while 31% said they were not content with it.

The results of this poll, which included Palestinians living in all nineteen neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, wildly contradict conventional wisdom about Palestinian opinion, and suggest that elites in the media and elsewhere who continually repeat the mantra about the absolute necessity of dividing Jerusalem, as a prerequisite for peace, are most certainly out of touch with the views of most Palestinians living there.

This poll represents another example of how facts and logic (and the views of Palestinians themselves) about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict are often ignored – a political blind spot informed by an adherence to rigid ideological orthodoxies. 

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