Monday, November 17, 2014

Palestinians' disproportionate appreciation of ISIS

On the day after ISIS released their most horrific video yet (showing the beheading of American Peter Kassig along with the ritual beheading of 16 Syrian pilots) a survey from the Doha-based Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies shows that citizens of Arab countries have a poor opinion of ISIS .... with one key exception...'Palestine' (i.e. the Palestinian Authority/Gaza area). Elder of Ziyon reports on this, giving the headline figure that 1 in 4 Palestinians (i.e.25%) support ISIS (compared to an overall average of 11%).

But there is a more damning statistic staring out from the data. Only 36% of Palestinians have a 'negative' view of ISIS compared to the overall Arab average of 72%.

What is it about Palestinian society which creates this mentality? Why, for example, is the response so much different from Jordan most of whose population is actually Palestinian?

Update 18 Nov 2014: Muslims celebrate Jerusalem synagogue massacre

No comments: