ASG Israel-Hamas poll methadology suspect

Dear Editor, 

I wish to compliment Cal Braid, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, for his article entitled “Poll reveals mixed concern and apathy over Israel-Hamas conflict”.

Mr. Braid covers the responses to the questions asked by Aurora Strategy Global [ASG] with careful attention to the data and accurately provides the information to the public in a well written fashion.

I have a major concern with the ASG report in which they evidence bias against Palestinians. Specifically, the question “Do the recent pro-Hamas protests and demonstrations across multiple cities in Canada and elsewhere concern you, do you support the protests and demonstrations, or are you indifferent?” is far from being scientific.

There have been no ‘pro-Hamas’ protests! At some of the protests calling for an Israeli ceasefire and/or the lifting of the military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza overly sensitive individuals wilfully misinterpret the phrase “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea’ as calling for the extinction of the State of Israel. This is an error in interpretation as Israel has never declared its borders and the border identified by the United Nations in 1947 between a Jewish homeland and a Palestinian State has never been formally put into place. Hence, whatever portion of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea eventually becomes the Palestinian State must be free from both the military occupation by Israel and the Apartheid regime which the Israel imposes upon the Palestinian Arabs.

By far most of those protesting want the war being waged by Israel to end with an immediate ceasefire. These individuals are not pro-Hamas and are not antisemitic. They simply want political difficulties to be resolved by diplomacy, negotiation, and international law.

The remainder are those who support the human rights of all Palestinians. These people want the government of Canada to change their current policy of blind support of Israel to a balanced policy wherein Palestinians are included into Canada’s striving for universal human rights. As well, they want Canada to immediately stop sending military materiel to Israel.

Since these two groups comprise the vast majority of the protesters, the question as phrased cannot differentiate between any protests which are comprised of antisemites and supporters of Hamas.

The second problem with the interview question rests with the wording “concern you” being interpreted as very concerned about pro-Hamas protests. Are the respondents indicating ‘concern’ means negative views of the protesters? Or do the respondents interpret ‘concern’ as being they are concerned about the muddle-headed stance of the federal government to whom the protest is aimed. The response to such a question cannot be properly interpreted.

Sincerely,

Walter Thomas Beckett, 

St. John’s, NL