Seventy-one percent of settlers believe there will be a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, according to the results of a survey by the Peace Now organization released today.
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The organization's survey of settler opinions, the second in two years, shows their political views to be far more moderate than usually perceived.
In last year's survey, just 55 percent of settlers believed there would be a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. In addition, 44 percent of settlers said in this year's poll that Palestinians deserve their own state - compared to 19 percent last year - while 47 percent believe this Palestinian state would eventually be established on parts of the West Bank.
If the settlers could decide where to live today, 71 percent said they would stay where they are, 14 percent would rather live somewhere else, and 15 percent said they would rather leave and go somewhere abroad. This means close to a third of settlers are today willing to quit the settlements.
Regarding illegal outposts, 66 percent of respondents said they should be dismantled, while 34 percent were opposed. The results also show that 46 percent of settlers think building in the West Bank should be done only in existing settlements, while 36 percent favor new outposts and 18 percent believe building should be brought to a standstill.
When asked whether they would oppose the evacuation of settlements, 90 percent of respondents said they would not break the law in response to an order to evacuate settlements, 54 percent responded that they would oppose the decision within the legal framework, over twice the number of settlers who responded thus in Peace Now's April 2002 survey.
Just 36 percent said that they would heed the order without any kind of opposition, compared to 67 percent last year. The last survey found that 5 percent of settlers would be willing to break the law to oppose the evacuation of settlements, while this year the figure has risen to 9 percent. One percent of those questioned said they would be willing to use violence, compared to 2 percent last year.
Should the government decide to dismantle settlements, 74 percent of settlers say that the state should compensate them and allow them to decide for themselves on the best solution. Around 9 percent said the state should resettle them inside Israel proper, while 8 percent say that the state should resettle them in the West Bank.
According to the Peace Now poll, 64 percent of settlers believe that the Israeli government has the authority to decide on evacuating the settlements (compared to 54 percent in the last survey), while 26 percent accept the rabbis' authority to decide on the matter (down from 30 percent in the 2002 poll).
Just 14 percent of settlers say the rabbis represent their beliefs, while even fewer settlers (12 percent) said that the Yesha Council of Settlements represents their views. A total of 17 percent of settlers say that no body accurately represents their opinions.
Some 1,100 people were questioned for this year's survey, including settlers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and a control group of people living inside Israel proper. This year's poll, like the 2002 survey, was a telephone survey.
Peace Now is demanding that the government set up a joint Prime Minister's Office, Finance Ministry and Housing and Construction Ministry body to prepare the groundwork ahead of an evacuation of settlers willing to accept compensation.
The Yesha Council said in response to the survey results yesterday that the polls of Palestinian Khalil Shakiki, which have found that most Palestinians support suicide bombings, are more accurate than those of Peace Now
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