Ninety-eight percent of West Bank residents are…

Ninety-eight percent of West Bank residents are in favor of an independent Palestinian state, and eighty-six percent say that they want this state to be run solely by the PLO, as indicated by a poll undertaken in March 1982 by the PORI Institute, a leading public opinion research organization in Israel.

Among public figures, the most popular (sixty-eight support) is Nablus mayor Bassam Shakaa, dismissed shortly before by West Bank "Civilian Administrator" Menachem Milson as part of his general attack on free political expression.

Shak'a had been the victim of a terrorist attack in June 1980 in which an IDF bomb blew off both of his legs; it is generally assumed that the terrorist were Jewish settlers in the area.

Other pro-PLO figures on the West Bank receive various degrees of support.

At the very bottom is Milson's protégé Mustafa Dudin, head of the hated Village Leagues, and the choice of the government of Israel and its supporters; Dudin receives the support of two tenths of a percent of the population.

Among Arab leaders, King Hussein of Jordan, the U.S. choice for representative of the West Bank Palestinians, ranks low, admired by only four percent.

As to the two Israeli political groupings, nine-tenths of a percent prefer to see Begin's Likud in power, while two percent prefer the Labor part; ninety-three percent register complete indifference.

As for Camp David, two percent feel it helped the Palestinian cause, while eighty-eight percent regard it as a hindrance.