What Palestinians want, and why Israelis miss it
Ask most Israelis what Palestinians want, and you’ll hear everything from “to destroy us” to “a giant UN-funded spa.” In truth, few know. The rest fill in the blanks with fear.
Many believe Palestinians are driven by implacable religious hatred, that Islam itself makes peace impossible. Somehow, the world’s most complicated conflict has been reduced to memes and shouting matches.
So let’s take a breath, loosen the shoulders, and try something outrageous. Let’s actually try to understand how Palestinians see things. Yes, with a smile. It’s allowed.
Why Israelis Struggle to Understand Palestinian Attitudes
A common Israeli question is, If most Palestinians are not sold on Hamas ideology, why is there a such a support for the Hamas?
The answer is simpler than it seems. Hamas is not the root of the story. Hamas is a symptom of a century-long narrative of dispossession.
Yes, there is a hard core, perhaps 30 percent, for whom religion is central and for whom any Jewish state is unacceptable. But that’s not what drives the majority. To understand the rest, you have to go back to the emotional ground zero, the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
The Emotional Origin: Balfour
Had it not been for Balfour, had history followed the pattern of every other post-Ottoman Arab province, the Arabs of Palestine would almost certainly have received self-determination. That’s what happened next door:
• Iraq: Arab majority, Arab-governed state
• Syria: Arab majority, Arab-governed state
• Lebanon: Same story
Only the Arabs of Palestine were told, Actually, your land has been promised to someone else.
From their perspective, this wasn’t about anything they did. It was simply decided over their heads. They didn’t need propaganda to feel wronged. The map itself did the talking.
A Narrative of Erasure
By the time Israel was founded in 1948, nearly every Palestinian, secular, religious, leftist, conservative, had internalized the same simple story.
“Our land was taken. Our history erased. And now the world expects us to thank them.”
While the Balfour Declaration did include language about protecting Arab rights, and even right-wing Zionists like Jabotinsky echoed this commitment, it barely registered in the Palestinian psyche. The trauma came first. Any nuance was drowned out by lived experience.
You may disagree with this narrative. But it is not fringe. It is the foundational worldview of an entire people.
Throughout the British Mandate, some Jewish groups did in fact disregard Arab rights. That only cemented the belief that Zionism wasn’t here to coexist, it was here to replace.
So when outsiders ask why more Palestinians don’t oppose Hamas, it’s like asking an Israeli to oppose the IDF. It’s not always about loving the group. It’s about what that group represents within the deeper story.
Oslo: The Misunderstood Experiment
When Oslo began in 1993, Israelis saw a first date with destiny. Hopeful, starry-eyed, cautiously romantic.
Palestinians, far more cynical.
To many of them, Oslo looked like this.
Israel is offering peace without justice. Justice means return. No return? Then this is a trick.
This is why polling from that era seems bizarre to Israelis. A majority of Palestinians supported a two-state solution and the right of return. To Israelis, that’s contradictory. To Palestinians, it’s not.
They saw a state as a good thing, but not a replacement for what they lost in 1948. Oslo’s biggest flaw was not the terms. It was the assumption that two peoples with completely different starting points were ready to negotiate a shared future.
The Trauma Loop
Then came the Second Intifada.
Palestinians saw it as a cry of frustration. Negotiations had stalled while settlements expanded. Camp David offers, which Israelis saw as generous, were viewed by Palestinians as fragmented and unjust.
The uprising began after Ariel Sharon’s heavily guarded visit to al-Aqsa. In the first five days, 47 Palestinians were killed. For many, that confirmed their fears. Peace was a trap.
Israelis saw buses exploding and said, They’ll never change.
Palestinians saw checkpoints, roadblocks, and closures and said, We were right, they tricked us.
Each side’s narrative confirmed itself.
By the time the violence stopped, both publics were operating on pure emotional autopilot.
Today: The Despair Paradox
Most Palestinians today aren’t dreaming of a state. They’ve lost faith.
But polls still show that about half would accept a two-state solution if they believed it was real. And only about a third now list the right of return as their top priority.
They’re not extremists.
They’re exhausted.
But they’re also afraid.
This is the part Israelis miss. In repeated PCPSR surveys, 60 to 82 percent of Palestinians believe Israel’s goal is to either expel them or rule them permanently without rights. In 2023, 69 percent of West Bank Palestinians feared forced displacement. These fears aren’t fringe. They shape everything.
October 7 and the Rage Response
After October 7, 75 percent of Palestinians initially supported the attacks. By May 2025, that dropped to 50 percent. In Gaza, support dropped to just 38 percent.
This wasn’t about Hamas’s ideology. 81 percent said the attack was about Al-Aqsa, settler violence, and prisoner releases. Two-thirds believed it brought neglected Palestinian issues back into global focus.
But here’s the striking part. Polls also showed an increase in support for a two-state solution and a drop in support for armed struggle. Many Palestinians, despite their rage, remain open to peace.
Not because they’re naive. Because they’re desperate for something else.
So What Do Palestinians Actually Want?
They want something very ordinary.
A life not ruled by occupation, militias, corruption, or despair.
A story they can tell their children that doesn’t require pretending their past never happened.
Right now, they have none of that.
This is why Hamas gains support in crisis. Not because most Palestinians want theocracy. Because in a vacuum of hope, rage is all that remains.
What Would Actually Change Things?
Not demands.
Not lectures.
Not “Prove you’re peaceful.”
People don’t abandon narratives because you tell them to.
They abandon narratives when a better one becomes plausible.
That means:
• A clearly stated final status
• Compensation instead of return, so justice doesn’t depend on turning back history
• A staged process where Palestinians gain responsibility only when they demonstrate readiness
Or in plain language:
Don’t ask Palestinians to defeat Hamas.
Give them a reason to want something better.
Because when people have something real to lose,
they fight to protect peace instead of to destroy it.
Understanding Is the Starting Point
This post complements our previous look at Israeli peace anxiety. Understanding both stories isn’t about picking sides. It’s about why we’re stuck and what it would actually take to get unstuck.
To begin again, we must start with vision.
Not slogans. Not punishments.
Just the courage to see each other clearly.
