What do the Palestinians want?!

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Postponing the Palestinian legislative and presidential elections until September of next year 2027 wasted the opportunity to exercise one of the signs of sovereignty necessary for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. It is the stable ability to choose and deliberate on important and public matters for the Palestinian people. Fortunately, despite the suffering of the Israeli occupation and the major problems that stand in the way of Palestinian voting in Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank, their opinions have not disappeared as a result of the ability to conduct stable public opinion polls conducted by the “Palestinian Center for Political and Survey Research,” which was established in 2000 as an academic institution that conducts political research on Palestinian public affairs in its various aspects. On October 14 of this year, the Center published the results of its 98th poll, just two months after its previous 97th poll, which took place in August 2026. The frequency and regularity of measuring Palestinian public opinion reflects a great degree of professionalism and scientific ability. However, public opinion polls are not an alternative means of voting that expresses the political commitment of those who participate at the ballot boxes; Rather, it is a measure of the pulse of the politicized masses at a particular moment, especially when the political climate is favorable, and the public debate and dialogue is rich in ideas, proposals, and approaches regarding the Palestinian issue at a critical moment in its history, which was embodied by the outbreak of the fifth Gaza War on October 7, 2023.

The “Al-Aqsa Flood” war did not remain in its tragic state in Gaza, but rather extended to the West Bank, where the Israeli expansion took place in the Palestinian lands allocated to the Palestinian National Authority in accordance with the Oslo Accords. It did not take long until the war merged with the Fourth Gulf War, and the entire Middle East became under the burden of a complex and difficult war that included the global economy and the threat to navigation and international trade, as well as other Arab countries that became under the influence of militias related to the “Resistance and Opposition” front. Talking about the war is not our topic as much as it took attention away from the “Palestinian issue” until the Palestinian leadership took the decision to hold general elections on November 28, 2026. The Palestinian elections have become part of the coincidence of the Israeli elections on October 27, the American midterm elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate. All of them have become linked to determining the fate of the Middle East. Since public opinion polls are ongoing on the three fronts, the opinion of the Palestinian people has become no less important than public opinion in Israel and the United States in determining the region’s trends regarding issues of war and peace.

In the midst of all this, the Palestinian presidency postponed the general elections, as happened throughout the previous twenty years, explaining the obstacles previously mentioned each time they were postponed, without explaining how to overcome them in the coming months. The aforementioned poll clearly says that the Palestinian people want to hold these elections (56%), with the leadership looking for Palestinian unity behind choices that the Palestinian people want. The general trend in these choices does not differ much from the general will of the Arab peoples regarding the importance of confronting the deteriorating economic conditions, with the rise in support for the “Bashar Al-Masry” list, which, after presenting information about his background and program, indicates that “voters” are practically moving toward administrative efficiency and attracting investments. It has become clear that the Hamas organization is witnessing a significant decline in its popularity, and this decline is not limited to them, but rather includes other and traditional organizations. Despite this, there is a refusal (74%) to disarm it; The strange thing is that this happened after Hamas announced its readiness for this step. The popular position did not see that Hamas and Israel also won the war; At the present time, he prefers negotiations over “armed struggle,” and nominates Arab countries, led by Egypt, to participate in mediation.

In short, the Palestinian people, after experiencing a major tragedy during the last three years, are now living in a realistic “sadatistic” moment that seeks first to save the masses from the tragedy they experienced by following practical and realistic policies that clearly present the two-state solution as a framework for the existence of a Palestinian state that reunites the Gaza Strip with the West Bank or the occupied territory after the June 1967 war, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Secondly, the tools for this are to build the state realistically on the ground through personalities with dynamic capabilities that create a new civil reality in which the state project monopolizes only the right to use weapons, which is the first characteristic of the national state. Thirdly, there is a realization that Israel has gone beyond the “two-state solution” that guarantees an independent Palestinian state. Likewise, the “one-state” solution does not allow for complete equality between the Palestinian and Israeli peoples. Fourthly, what can be concluded from the poll is that the Palestinian people have not shown a retreat from their legitimate rights. But at the same time, he realizes that the previous means, including its parties and leaders, did not lead the Palestinian national movement to achieve its goals. Ultimately, the matter includes the need for more Palestinian thinking about how to invest in the American project, which seems directed only at Gaza, and extend it to the West Bank as well.

Quoted from Al-Masry Al-Youm