Palestinian Territories 06/2015 EDITORIAL Please find attached the latest public opi ­nion poll conducted by the Jerusalem Me ­dia and Communication Centre(JMCC) in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in Au ­gust 2015. While rumours continue to fly around Mahmoud Abbas’ future as Palestinian Pre ­sident, there appears to be no clear popu ­lar successor should he step down. While the imprisoned Marwan Barghouti remains popular on the Palestinian street- 10.5% of respondents would vote him for him in presidential elections – Saeb Erekat, who is reportedly being groomed as Fatah’s fu ­ture leader, faces an uphill challenge con ­vincing the Palestinian electorate he is the right man for the job. In fact, only 3.3% of those polled would vote for him if presidential elections were to be held. Yet with no clear end to his tenure in sight, Abbas has much left to do to ensure his popularity ratings do not fall. The number of respondents who trust the President dropped from 21.8% in March 2015 to 16.1%. Similarly fewer Palestinians, 17.3%, believe the govern ­ment is dealing with the administration of its finances in a transparent fashion, down from 24.3% two years ago. Be that as it may, a large percentage of Palestinians, 52.4%, are still somewhat or very satis ­fied with the way Abbas is dealing with his job as president of the Palestinian National Authority(PNA) and 57.4% of respondents evaluated the performance of the PNA as good or very good. This goes someway to explain the signi ­ficant – and growing – gap in support for Palestine’s two main political factions. Whereas 37.7% of respondents said they would vote for Fatah in national elec ­tions in March of this year, this figure now stands at 41.1%. Likewise support for Ha ­mas has dropped from 22% in March 2015 to 20.2%. Turning to Gaza, and despite headlines about ISIS-infiltration of the strip, the poll shows that the perception among Ga ­zans is that the presence of ISIS is insi ­gnificant: 78.7% claimed the group has little or no presence in Gaza. At the same time, 25.6% of Gazans are moderately or very sympathetic to Salafi groups challen ­ging Hamas’ authority and 27.3% blame Hamas for the persisting division between Fatah and Hamas. Thus it would seem that Hamas is struggling to regain legitimacy in the strip and Gazans are growing tired of its authority. In light of ongoing discus ­sions about a mediated long term peace fire, a high number of Gazans, 59.1%, be ­lieve a truce will be reached between Ha ­mas and Israel. It remains to be seen how these respondents will react should their hopes of a truce be dashed in the coming weeks. Finally, a majority of Palestinians, 58.9%, wants legislative and presidential elections regardless of Palestinian reconciliation, a large majority, 82.9%, think it is impor ­tant that Palestinian legislative council elections are held and 81.5% think it is important that presidential elections are held. Dissatisfaction and uncertainty may prevail, but Palestinians underlining desire to cast their vote and shape their own fu ­ture survives. While encouraging Palesti ­nian unity and reviving peace negotiations are worthy causes, the poll clearly shows that the international community ought not to lose sight of the unique power of the ballot box. Design: ery foto Seite 1