- Times of Israel -
A slim majority of Palestinians living in Jerusalem would prefer Israeli citizenship to being citizens of a Palestinian state, a new poll indicates.
Just over half, or 52 percent, of respondents told pollsters they would prefer “Israeli citizenship with equal rights,” while 42% prefer to be Palestinian citizens when a Palestinian state is established, Channel 2 reported Wednesday.
The figure is far higher than in polls conducted in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. In Gaza, just 4% said they preferred Israeli citizenship; in the West Bank, just 12%.
The figure was part of a forthcoming poll from the The Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Fikra Forum, conducted by Nabil Kukali of the Palestine Center for Public Opinion.
The figure marks a spike in desire for Israeli citizenship. A similar poll in 2010 found just one-third of East Jerusalem Arabs preferred Israeli citizenship to Palestinian.
Data obtained by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies indicates a jump over the past decade of actual requests by Palestinians in East Jerusalem for Israeli citizenship, rising from 114 applications in 2003 to between 800 and 1,000 per year now, around half of which are ultimately successful, Reuters reported earlier this month.
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