While the United States, United Nations, European Union, and other prominent international bodies have expressed confidence in the ability of a negotiated settlement to end the Arab-Israeli conflict, a new poll shows that the next generation of Palestinian Arabs firmly disagrees.
On Monday the Jerusalem Media & Communication Centre released polling data revealing the wide gulf between the views of world leaders pressing for negotiations and young Arabs living under the Palestinian Authority.
According to the poll, a full 67% of Palestinian Arab youth believe that negotiations are incapable of ending the conflict, compared to only 23.5% who responded that a negotiated settlement could resolve the conflict.
The poll also revealed that support for a two-state solution is sinking among young Palestinian Arabs. Only 42.8% said they favored a two-state solution, compared to 69% of Palestinian Arabs of all ages according to last month’s JMCC poll.
Support for random stabbing attacks on Israelis remains high among Arab youth, although not significantly higher than among Palestinian Arabs generally.
Among younger Arabs living in Judea and Samaria, 46.4% supported random stabbings of Israelis compared to 56.2% of all Arabs according to last month’s poll. In Gaza a whopping 78.6% of young Arabs supported knife terrorism, compared to 79.5% among all Gaza Arabs last month.