Neither Fatah nor Hamas: Arab News/YouGov poll shows Palestinians want nothing to do with their leadership

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Palestinian skepticism has been fueled by the policies of the right-wing governments of Benjamin Netanyahu (L), who since 1996 has served 15 years as prime minister. (AP/File Photo)
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Updated 20 May 2023
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Neither Fatah nor Hamas: Arab News/YouGov poll shows Palestinians want nothing to do with their leadership

  • Survey released on 75th anniversary of the Nakba reveals broad sense of despair among Palestinian population
  • Overwhelming 86% respondents believe current Israeli government is not serious about signing a peace deal

LONDON: A new Arab News/YouGov survey has identified a broad sense of despair among many Palestinians who feel trapped between an Israeli government they believe has no interest in forging peace and a Palestinian leadership they do not trust to successfully negotiate a deal with Israel.

The survey, titled “Prospects, Peace and Politics: Where do Palestinians stand?,” was published on the 75th anniversary of the Nakba.

Unsurprisingly, the survey finds that an overwhelming majority of Palestinians — 86 percent of the 693 who expressed a view — believe that the current Israeli government is not serious about signing a peace deal, a prospect about which only 14 percent remain optimistic.

Such skepticism has been fueled by the policies of the right-wing governments of Benjamin Netanyahu, who since 1996 has served 15 years as prime minister, over four separate terms in office.

After the formation in December 2022 of the latest Israeli coalition government, widely regarded as the most right-wing the country has seen, Netanyahu’s Likud party unnerved even its US allies by announcing plans to “advance and develop settlements in all parts of Israel — in the Galilee, the Negev Desert, the Golan Heights and Judea and Samaria (West Bank).”

Haaretz, the left-leaning Israeli newspaper, described the new government as “the most extreme right-wing, racist, homophobic and theocratic coalition in Israel’s history” — an impression Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich did nothing to dispel with a speech in March in which he declared: “There is no such thing as a Palestinian nation. There is no Palestinian history.”

In January this year protests broke out across Israel against plans by the coalition to reform the judiciary, widely seen as a move designed to end judicial review of the government’s policies.

Such is the skepticism among Palestinians about the intentions of the Israelis that 66 percent still see no hope for peace even in the unlikely event of Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing regime being replaced by a left-wing government.

The last time the left had any real influence on Israeli politics was during the heyday of the Meretz party, which between 1992 and 1996 held 12 seats and was the third largest party in the Knesset. Meretz won no seats in Israel’s 2022 elections.

Regardless, the survey shows that there is little confidence among Palestinians in any Israeli government, whether right or left. Only 15 percent believe a right-wing government is likely to sign a peace deal, rising only slightly to 19 percent in the case of any future left-wing administration.

More surprisingly, perhaps, 63 percent of Palestinians feel unrepresented by either Hamas or Fatah, with the two factions attracting the confidence of only 11 percent and 19 percent respectively.




Palestinians carry the body of Shadi al-Shurafa who was killed by Israeli army fire on July 27 and his body was returned today, during a funeral procession in Beita village in the occupied West Bank, on August 10, 2021. (AFP/File Photo)

US-Palestinian journalist, author and media consultant Ramzy Baroud told Arab News that the results of its YouGov poll are “consistent with the reality on the ground. Indeed, this lack of leadership on the part of the Palestinian Authority, coupled with the factional divide, has pushed Palestinians to mobilize around different sets of values and a different kind of leadership.”

The slow formation of this new leadership, “emerging at a grassroots community level throughout occupied Palestine and among Palestinian prisoners in Israel,” was “completely bypassing the Palestinian Authority and also the factional nature of the various Palestinian political groups.”

This process, he believes, “will eventually lead to a degree of centralized leadership, which reflects the growing unity among Palestinians at a popular level.”

Meanwhile, he added, “despite the lack of truly representative leadership, the Palestinian people continue to communicate, time and again, that only an end to the Israeli occupation and the dismantlement of the apartheid regime can start the process of achieving true peace and justice in Palestine.”

Hamas, which was founded in 1987 after the first intifada, holds a majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council, the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority, but maintains a military wing and is designated a terrorist organization by the US and some other states, including the UK. 

Fatah is currently the second-largest party in the Palestinian Legislative Council. Founded in 1959 by Yasser Arafat and others as the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, Fatah had a long history of terrorism but in the late 1980s renounced violence in favor of pursuing a diplomatic path toward a two-state solution.

The poll shows that only 25 percent of Palestinians believe the current Palestinian leadership is capable of successfully negotiating a peace deal with Israel.  A whopping 75 percent do not. 

“Palestinians lost trust in their leadership years ago,” Baroud said.

“This lack of trust is intrinsically linked to the endemic corruption of the PA but also to the total failure of the current Palestinian leadership to achieve a single meaningful political victory that could potentially renew the Palestinian people’s faith in the so-called peace process.”

In a frank interview with Al Arabiya in 2020, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia’s former ambassador to the US, spoke of his sadness at the failure of the Palestinian leadership to find the path to peace over many years. He was responding to the outright rejection by Palestinian leaders of the declaration of cooperation between the US, Israel, and the UAE, which was described by one Palestinian official as “a poisoned stab in the back of the Palestinian people and an attempt to try and get around international legitimacy.”

This, said Prince Bandar, “was truly painful to hear. This low level of discourse is not what we expect from officials who seek to gain global support for their cause, and their transgression against the Gulf states’ leadership with this reprehensible discourse is entirely unacceptable.”

It was, he added, “not surprising to see how quick these leaders are to use terms like ‘treason,’ ‘betrayal,’ and ‘back-stabbing,’ because these are their ways in dealing with each other.

“Efforts in the past years would have been better focused on the Palestinian cause, peace initiatives and protecting the rights of the Palestinian people to reach a point where this just, albeit robbed, cause can finally see the light — and when I say robbed, I mean both by Israel and Palestinian leaders equally.”

When asked for their views about why all previous peace talks and initiatives have failed, Israel’s continuing policy of intimidation, settlements and annexation emerges as the number one perceived cause, followed closely by US bias toward Israel.

This bias was especially evident during the presidency of Donald Trump. In November 2019 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that the US no longer considered Israel settlements in the West Bank to be illegal, reversing a position held by the US since a 1978 legal ruling by the State Department.

However, in February this year Antony Blinken, the current US secretary of state, issued a statement condemning Israeli moves to accelerate its illegal settlement program. The US, he said, was “deeply troubled by Israel’s decision yesterday to advance reportedly nearly 10,000 settlement units and to begin a process to retroactively legalize nine outposts in the West Bank that were previously illegal under Israeli law.”

He added: “We strongly oppose such unilateral measures, which exacerbate tensions and undermine the prospects for a negotiated two-state solution.”

Despite the lack of confidence in Hamas and Fatah, those polled were less inclined to lay the blame for the failure of peace talks on the activities of Palestinian armed militias.

 


Lebanese army says Hamas handed over suspect in missile launches toward Israel

Updated 8 sec ago
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Lebanese army says Hamas handed over suspect in missile launches toward Israel

CAIRO: The Lebanese army said on Sunday that Hamas handed over a suspect involved in launching missiles towards Israel in March, days after Lebanon warned the Palestinian group not to conduct operations that compromise Lebanese security or sovereignty.


UAE to lift Lebanon travel ban on May 7

Updated 3 min 19 sec ago
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UAE to lift Lebanon travel ban on May 7

  • UAE will lift a ban for its citizens traveling to Lebanon as of May 7, 2025

DUBAI: The UAE Foreign Ministry announced Sunday that it will lift a ban on its citizens traveling to Lebanon as of May 7, 2025, following a visit by the Lebanese head of state last week, according to WAM News Agency. 

The decision comes after a joint statement issued on Thursday, announcing that Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed agreed to implement measures to facilitate travel and improve movement between the two countries.

The UAE banned its citizens from traveling to Lebanon in 2021. Lebanese citizens were not banned from traveling to the UAE. 


Paramilitaries launch first attack on Port Sudan: army

Updated 04 May 2025
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Paramilitaries launch first attack on Port Sudan: army

  • The paramilitaries have expanded the scope and frequency of their drone attacks on army-held areas since losing control of areas including most of the capital Khartoum in March
  • UN agencies have also moved their offices and staff to Port Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge from the war.

PORT SUDAN: Sudanese paramilitaries on Sunday struck Port Sudan, the army said, in the first attack on the seat of the army-aligned government in the country’s two-year war.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with the regular army since April 2023, have increased their use of drones since losing territory including much of the capital Khartoum in March.
Army spokesman Nabil Abdullah said in a statement that the RSF “targeted Osman Digna Air Base, a goods warehouse and some civilian facilities in the city of Port Sudan with suicide drones.”
He reported no casualties but “limited damage” in the city, on Sudan’s Red Sea coast.
AFP images showed smoke billowing from the area of the airport in Port Sudan, about 650 kilometers (400 miles) from the nearest known RSF positions on the outskirts of Khartoum.
In the eastern border town of Kassala, some 500 kilometers south of Port Sudan, near Eritrea, witnesses said three drones struck the airport on Sunday for the second day in a row.
An AFP correspondent in Port Sudan said his home, about 20 kilometers from the airport, was shaking as explosions were heard early Sunday.
A passenger told AFP from the airport that “we were on the way to the plane when we were quickly evacuated and taken out of the terminal.”
On social media, users shared videos which AFP was not able to immediately verify showing a large explosion followed by a cloud of smoke rising from the blast site.
Flights to and from Port Sudan, the country’s main port of entry since the start of the war, were suspended until further notice, a government source told AFP.
The rare attacks on the airports in Port Sudan and Kassala, both far from areas that have seen much of the fighting since April 2023, come as the RSF has expanded the scope and frequency of its drone attacks.
The paramilitaries led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo have been battling the regular army, headed by Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, in a devastating war that has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 13 million.
In the early days of the war, the government relocated from Khartoum to Port Sudan, which until Sunday’s attack had been spared the violence.
UN agencies have also moved their offices and staff to Port Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge from the war.
The conflict has left Sudan, Africa’s third largest country, effectively divided.
The army controls the center, east and north, while the RSF has conquered nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur and parts of the south.
Lacking the army’s fighter jets, the RSF has relied on drones, including makeshift ones, for air power.


Missile launched from Yemen lands near Israel’s main airport

Updated 04 May 2025
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Missile launched from Yemen lands near Israel’s main airport

  • Yemen's Houthis claim missile attack on Israel's main airport
  • Sirens were activated in Tel Aviv and other areas in the country

TEL AVIV: A missile landed inside the perimeter of Israel’s main airport on Sunday, wounding six people, halting flights and gouging a wide crater, in an attack claimed by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants.
The Israeli military said “several attempts were made to intercept” the missile that was launched from Yemen, a rare Houthi attack that penetrated Israel’s air defenses.
A video issued by Israel’s police force showed officers standing on the edge of a deep crater with the control tower visible in the distance behind them. No damage was reported to airport buildings or runways.
The police reported a “missile impact” at Ben Gurion airport, Israel’s main international gateway.
An AFP photographer said the missile hit near the parking lots of Terminal 3, the airport’s largest, with the crater less than a kilometer (0.6 miles) away from the closest tarmac.
“You can see the area just behind us: a crater was formed here, several dozen meters (yards) wide and several dozen meters deep,” central Israel’s police chief, Yair Hezroni, said in the video shared by the force.
It was not immediately clear whether the impact was caused by the Yemeni missile or by an interceptor.
The attack was claimed by Yemen’s Houthis, who say they act in support for Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza.
“The missile force of the Yemeni armed forces carried out a military operation targeting Ben Gurion airport” with a “hypersonic ballistic missile,” the Houthis said in a statement, referring to their own forces.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said it had treated at least six people with light to moderate injuries.
An AFP journalist inside the airport at the time of the attack said he heard a “loud bang” at around 9:35 am (0635 GMT), adding the “reverberation was very strong.”
“Security staff immediately asked hundreds of passengers to take shelter, some in bunkers,” the AFP journalist said.
“Many passengers are now waiting for their flights to take off, and others are trying to find alternative flights.”
An incoming Air India flight was diverted to Abu Dhabi, an airport official told AFP.
A passenger said the attack, which came shortly after air raid sirens sounded across parts of the country, caused panic.
“It is crazy to say but since October 7 we are used to this,” said the passenger, who did not want to be named, referring to the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
“A missile might come at any time and life stops for some time. Today at the airport there was panic and even I was scared, because the blast was big.”

Israel’s airport authority said that “departures and arrivals have resumed” at Ben Gurion, a short while after they had been interrupted due to the missile fire.
The airport “is open and operational,” the aviation authority said in a statement.
Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened a forceful response, saying: “Anyone who hits us, we will hit them seven times stronger.”

The armed wing of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas praised the missile attack on Israel's airport that was claimed by the Houthis.

“Yemen... escalates its attacks on the heart of the illegitimate Zionist entity, surpassing the most advanced defense systems in the world and striking its targets with precision,” Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement. 


Qatar rejects Netanyahu’s ‘inflammatory’ Gaza comments: foreign ministry

Updated 04 May 2025
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Qatar rejects Netanyahu’s ‘inflammatory’ Gaza comments: foreign ministry

  • Netanyahu's office earlier urged Qatar to stop its "double game" and "decide if it’s on the side of civilization or if it’s on the side of Hamas”
  • Qatar ministry spokesman said the statement "fall far short of the most basic standards of political and moral responsibility”

DOHA: Gaza mediator Qatar on Sunday rejected comments from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it needed to “stop playing both sides” in truce negotiations.
A statement released by Netanyahu's office on Saturday said Qatar needs to “decide if it’s on the side of civilization or if it’s on the side of Hamas.”
Qatar “firmly rejects the inflammatory statements... which fall far short of the most basic standards of political and moral responsibility,” foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari responded in a post on X.

Gaza mediator Qatar on Sunday rejected comments from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it needed to “stop playing both sides” in truce negotiations. A statement released by Netanyahu's office on Saturday said Qatar needs to “decide if it’s on the side of civilization or if it’s on the side of Hamas.” Qatar “firmly rejects the inflammatory statements... which fall far short of the most basic standards of political and moral responsibility,” foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari responded in a post on X.

Despite efforts by Egyptian and Qatari mediators to restore a ceasefire, neither Israel nor Hamas has shown willingness to back down on core demands, with each side blaming the other for the failure to reach a deal.
Israel, which wants the return of 59 hostages still held in Gaza, has insisted Hamas must disarm and be excluded from any role in the future governance of the enclave, a condition that Hamas rejects.
It has insisted on agreeing a lasting end to the fighting and withdrawal of Israeli forces as a condition for a deal that would see a release of the hostages.
Al-Ansari criticized the portrayal of the Gaza conflict as a defense of civilization, likening it to historical regimes that used “false narratives to justify crimes against civilians.”
In his post, Al-Ansari questioned whether the release of 138 hostages was achieved through military operations or mediation efforts, which he said are being unjustly criticized and undermined.
He also cited the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza represented by what he called a suffocating blockade, systematic starvation, denial of medicine and shelter, and the use of humanitarian aid as a tool of political coercion. On Friday, Israel’s security cabinet approved plans for an expanded operation in the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported on Friday, adding to signs that attempts to stop the fighting and return hostages held by Hamas have made no progress.
Israel’s campaign was triggered by the devastating Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and saw 251 taken hostage. It has so far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and devastated Gaza where aid groups have warned the Israeli blockade risks a humanitarian disaster.