Don’t say “Hamas’ massacre.” Say “the Palestinian massacre.” That’s the way Palestinian Authority Arabs see Oct. 7.
Every poll of Palestinian Authority Arabs since October 7, 2023, by both AWRAD (Arab World for Research and Development) and PSR (Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research) shows that an overwhelming majority of Palestinian Authority Arabs supported and continue to support the rapes, torture, beheadings, and murder of more than 1,200 people in southern Israel led by Hamas, and their kidnapping of 251 hostages.
Significantly, the polls found that the support in the West Bank (Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria) was higher than the that the Gaza Strip.
Asked if they supported the attack on Oct 7, the first poll in November 2023 found West Bank support at 83 percent. Half a year later, in June 2024, after the destruction in Gaza, 73 percent still said that the decision to attack Israel was correct.
In the Gaza Strip, two months into the war support had already dropped to 63 percent and continued to fall to only 31 percent in March 2024, saying it was correct to attack.
Astonishingly, the joy over the rape, torture, beheadings, and murder of Israelis was so great that even after much of Gaza was in rubble following Israel’s counter attack, for West Bank Arabs that one day of horror inflicted on Israelis made the destruction of Gaza an acceptable price to pay.
Possibly the ongoing belief that the decision to attack was the right decision can be explained by the results of a question that was asked only in the November 2023 poll by AWRAD: “Considering the ongoing events do you feel a sense of pride as a Palestinian?”
Incredibly, 98 percent of Palestinians said they felt “pride as Palestinians.”
The importance of this question is that it removed the destruction of Gaza out of the equation.
Even those 27 percent of Palestinians who didn’t think attacking Israel was the “correct decision,” attacking Israelis and murdering them freely for 24 hours still created “pride as Palestinians.”
Both in the West Bank and Gaza 94 percent answered that the events made them “proud to a great extent,” while another three to four percent were “proud to some extent.”
Another very significant question asked which political parties Palestinian Authority Arabs supported. In the poll prior to the October 7 massacre, Fatah (orange) was more than twice as popular as Hamas in the West Bank. Since the massacre, all three polls show Hamas (green) two and a half to three times more popular than Fatah.
Israelis must accept the reality that the murder of Israelis and atrocities committed against Israelis is what creates popularity among Palestinians.
Another astonishing finding is that even though most of Hamas’ terror army is destroyed, and most of the infrastructures in the Gaza Strip either destroyed or damaged, still 79 percent of West Bank Palestinians believe that Hamas will win the war. Even 48 percent of Gazans believe that Hamas will be victorious.
To understand this, we must recognize what victory means both for Israel and Palestinians.
For Israel, victory means destroying Hamas both militarily and politically so that it can never rebuild and launch missiles into Israel or be a threat to commit another October 7.
For Palestinians, if Hamas avoids destruction and the members who survive continue to impose their military and political rule on the Gazan population that will be a complete victory for Hamas.
Between March and June 2024, the belief that Hamas will win the war went up from 69 percent to 79 percent, and this corresponds to the period of intense international pressure on Israel to agree to an immediate cease-fire.
Even within Israel there were demonstrations calling for ceasefire exchange for release of just a small number of the hostages.
A ceasefire without the destruction of Hamas, is all that Palestinians need to declare Hamas victorious.
Palestinians are following these pressures around the world and in Israel and are convinced that ceasefire and Hamas victory is forthcoming.
Based on captured Hamas documents, the Israeli Army exposed that Hamas as rulers in Gaza was able to falsify the March 2024 poll.
Gaza Strip support for Hamas’ attack was initially at 71 percent whereas in fact after six months of war support was only 30.7 percent. But no one is questioning the accuracy of the support for Hamas in the West Bank where Fatah rules. Were Fatah able to tamper with the results in the West Bank it certainly would not have shown Hamas to be the far more popular.
The most important conclusion from these polls is that it’s time Israelis and the world stop referring to the massacre on October 7 as the “Hamas massacre.”
Hamas perpetrated the massacre with the support of and in the name of the majority of Palestinians. The atrocities made 98 percent of Palestinians proud. Don’t say “Hamas’ massacre.” Say “the Palestinian massacre.” That’s the way Palestinians see it.
This report first appeared on the Palestinian Media Watch website.
