71% of Israelis oppose Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, support Israeli control of West Bank: poll

Seventy-one percent of Israelis oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria.Nearly 70% want to extend Israeli sovereignty over the area, according to a poll conducted on Jan.

29.The survey comes on the background of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s departure on Sunday to meet with U.S.President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C.“The findings are public just in time for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit with President Trump.

Bibi can now go to the president of the United States with a clear statement that this is the will of the people of Israel,” Avi Abelow, CEO of Pulse of Israel, which co-sponsored the poll, told JNS.The future of Judea and Samaria, commonly known as the West Bank, is likely to be discussed between the two leaders as diplomatic relations with Arab countries is expected to be a key topic.Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has signaled that a Palestinian state is a condition for normalization of relations with Jerusalem.(Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer said during a Jan.

22 speech in the Knesset plenum that Israel has made “no such promise.”)The survey asked respondents whether they would support a Palestinian state as part of an Israeli-Saudi peace deal.More than half said they would not even do so when attached to Saudi normalization.Thirty-nine percent said they would support a Palestinian state linked to a Saudi agreement.

Eight percent had no opinion.The results echoed a survey conducted in May 2024 by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, which found that 64% of the Israeli public opposed the creation of a Palestinian state as part of normalization with the Saudis.Netanyahu has remained mum on extending Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, though he, with Trump’s backing, attempted to do so over parts of the region during the U.S.president’s first term in 2020.Allies of both the president and the prime minister support the idea of Israeli sovereignt...