A poll to measure Arab opinion trends regarding the Israeli aggression, conducted by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies via telephone on a sample of 8,000 people in the period between 12/12/2023 and 1/5/2024, revealed the great discrepancy between official and popular positions in the Arab world and in many directions. Regarding what is happening in Gaza.
The survey included all Arab countries except the UAE, Bahrain, Djibouti, Somalia and Syria, in addition to the Gaza Strip.
The poll showed that the overwhelming majority in the Arab street refuses to recognize Israel at a rate of up to 89%, and therefore they do not agree to the normalization that some Arab regimes are moving towards.
The Arab street also believes – according to the poll – that the negativity of Arab governments and normalization agreements are factors that encourage the occupation to continue its aggression against the Gaza Strip.
The results of the poll revealed the great confidence of the Arab street in the Palestinian resistance, its credibility, its proposals and its positions.
Defending Al-Aqsa
In response to a question about the reasons that prompted the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) to carry out Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the two reasons that topped the list, according to respondents, were the continuation of the occupation, 35%, and the defense of Al-Aqsa, 24%, and the Hamas military operation bore his name.
As for what was claimed by the anti-resistance media – whether Arab, Israeli or Western – that the Al-Aqsa flood was the implementation of a foreign agenda, specifically an Iranian one, only 2% of the respondents agreed with it.
It is noteworthy that the highest percentage that adopted the issue of defending Al-Aqsa as the most important reason for the Hamas attack was from the West Bank and amounted to 45%, which reflects its residents’ feeling of the imminent danger to Al-Aqsa, which they live with on a daily basis, and their high confidence in Hamas’s credibility.
Legitimate resistance
In assessing the legitimacy of what Hamas did in unleashing the Al-Aqsa flood, 88% of the Arab street believes that this resistance operation was legitimate, while only 5% believe that it was not.
Therefore, the condemnation of the Hamas operation by some Arab regimes was contrary to the pulse and trends of the Arab street, and it certainly reflects the absence of democracy in Arab political decisions.
Also, 82% of respondents believed that Hamas is different from ISIS, while 10% answered that they did not know or refused to answer.
As for solidarity with the people of Gaza and Hamas together, the percentage was 69%, while 23% expressed solidarity with the people of Gaza despite their differences with Hamas.
There is no peace with the occupation
The Israeli aggression shook the Arab street’s convictions about the possibility of establishing peace with the occupation. 59% of the sample questioned believed that they had become certain that there would be no possibility of establishing peace with the occupation, while 14% became greatly doubtful about that, and 9% believed even before the war that there was no possibility of establishing peace with the occupation. There was no possibility of establishing peace. In brief, 82% of the Arab street did not see the possibility of achieving peace with Israel, albeit to varying degrees.
This result greatly and overwhelmingly reinforces the resistance’s theses, and necessarily shows the weakness of the Palestinian Authority’s popularity and the conviction of Arab opinion of the futility of Arab peace initiatives with the occupation.
The results of the referendum also sent a clear and clear message of anger to the West – especially the United States of America – due to its support for the crimes of the occupation, and demonstrated the weakness of American credibility in the Arab street. American support constitutes – according to 50% of respondents – the most important factor that contributes to Israel’s continued aggression against Gaza.
The American position
As for positions on Israel’s war on Gaza, the results showed that 94% of respondents evaluated the American position as negative, while 79%, 78%, and 75% evaluated the French, British, and German positions, respectively, as negative.
While we note that the percentage of those dissatisfied with the positions of European countries is close and high, we notice something similar to the consensus of the Arab street regarding the negativity of the American position.
The Arab street’s hatred and negative feelings towards the United States of America have greatly increased, as have feelings of distrust and lack of credibility in it. The vast majority of respondents (81%) do not trust Washington’s seriousness in working to establish a Palestinian state.
Mistrust of the United States extends to the American media’s coverage of the war, which 82% of respondents rated as biased toward Israel.
What is striking and surprising is that the Arab street sees that America is the most threatening to the security and stability of the region (51%), and is ahead of Israel by a large margin (26%).
Central issue
The Al-Aqsa Flood operation restored the Palestinian issue to its prominence after it had become routine news in recent years, and returned to the forefront of issues in the Arab conscience. 92% of respondents considered that the Palestine issue is the issue of all Arabs.
An overwhelming percentage of those polled also showed keen follow-up to the war on Gaza and the psychological pressures that Arab citizens are exposed to as they follow the aggression and war of annihilation against Gaza.
It was clear that the Arab popular position was almost unified in its positions on Palestine and the resistance, despite the large discrepancies between the positions of the Arab regimes on these issues. If the people had been given freedom of choice and decision, they would have dealt with the occupation and its crimes in a different way than what is happening now.