Israeli military says Hamas falsified Gaza war poll results to exaggerate public support

Khalil Shikaki in 2014

Fadi Amun reports in Haaretz on 29 August 2024:

The Israeli military said on Thursday that Hamas manipulated public opinion poll results it sent to a respected polling institution in order to falsely inflate public support.

According to the military, documents found in tunnels in Gaza indicated Hamas efforts to change results before returning them to the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, headed by the political scientist Khalil Shikaki.  It also said the documents showed attempts to discredit senior Palestinian Authority officials.

Shikaki’s polling center is one of the leading authorities on Palestinian public opinion, holding significant credibility around the world. The military said one of the documents details how Hamas edited its survey results and returned them to the research institute for publication.

For instance, in a March survey, the polling institute reported that 62 percent of Gaza’s population was satisfied with Hamas’ performance in the war. That result aligns with the falsified results shown in the document released by the military. According to the military, the original survey indicated only 31.9 percent support.

Another question in the survey, the military said, showed that in the original document, only 30.7 percent of Gaza residents supported Hamas’ decision to attack Israel on October 7. However, both the fabricated results in the document and the published results from the polling institute stated that 71 percent believed the decision was correct.

According to the military, a copy of the fabricated results was also sent to Al Jazeera journalist Tamer Almisshal for dissemination. The document includes the original results and says they are classified.  Another document released by the military purportedly details the tactic Hamas members should follow to influence public opinion and media coverage.

Another allegedly shows that there were teams focused on damaging the reputation of key Palestinian officials, including Hussein Al-Sheikh, secretary-general of Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee; Majed Faraj, head of the Palestinian General Intelligence Service; and Mohammad Shtayyeh, former Palestinian prime minister.

In a response to Haaretz, Khalil Shikaki said that, “while we normally thoroughly investigate any claims of inappropriate data collection issues, as we have already started to do in this case, our Gaza team, which has worked with us for more than 20 years, has been exemplary in its conduct as professional data collectors. Our quality control measures include several layers and aim at detecting any inappropriate behavior. Our own software that processes the data is capable of detecting and flagging any significant manipulation.

“But since the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research doesn’t involve itself in politics, it cannot issue a statement on the matter. I can only express my personal opinion that based on what I have seen so far, and I have not yet seen everything, this sounds like a war of narratives between the [Israeli] army and Hamas in the hope of shaping public opinion. I hate to see the [Israeli] army putting us in the middle of this war, but our response will be, as always, to probe and reinforce our quality control measures.”

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