An-Najah Staff

Background
Since the domination of Hamas movement over the Gaza Strip, it has become obvious that the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) has become completely impaired. Such reality prompted President Abu Mazen to issue a group of presidential decrees in the form of laws the most important of which was amending the elections law to make the whole country one electoral circle. This amendment was rejected by Hamas considering the President's decree unconstitutional. In Gaza, the PLO factions called upon all citizens to hold the Friday prayer in the open, instead of holding it in mosques since, they believe, Hamas uses mosques for incitement. Hamas denied such allegations and issued a religious decree (fatwa) denying the sanctity and holiness of prayers outside mosques (in the open). The Executive Force encountered the worshippers, beat them and arrested several. Even media personnel were not spared harassments. Such harassments were condemned by several Palestinian factions and civil society institutions considering them attacks on public liberties and an attempt to confound people. On the side of negotiations, meetings between President Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister continued aiming at laying out a detailed frame work for a Palestinian Israeli solution that will be discussed in the international meeting intended to take place in the coming fall.
The Results
Following are the results of the 30th Palestinian Public Opinion Poll conducted by the Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies at An-Najah National University during the period from 13-15 September, 2007. The University sponsors all polls conducted by its Center. Palestinian public opinion poll no. 30 undertakes the current political realities especially the incidents that took place in the Gaza Strip, the domination of Hamas over the Strip, the accompanying development on the Palestinian arena, in addition to political affiliations. The sample included 1360 persons whose age group is 18 and above and who have the right to vote. The enclosed questionnaire was distributed on 860 persons from the West Bank and 500 persons from the Gaza Strip. The sample was drawn randomly and the margin of error is about ±3%; still 3.8% of the members of the sample refused to answer the questionnaire.