The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) (ar: المركز الفلسطيني للبحوث السياسية والمسحية) is a Palestinian research organisation and think tank based in Ramallah established for "advancing scholarship and knowledge on immediate issues of concern to Palestinians in three areas: domestic politics and government, strategic analysis and foreign policy, and public opinion polls and survey research".[1]
It has been conducting opinion polls in these fields since the mid-1990s.[2] In 1993, Palestinian political scientist Khalil Shikaki founded the Center for Palestine Research and Studies in Nablus, which became the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in 2000. Shikaki has consulted regularly with Israeli political scientists and has conducted joint polls with Israeli researchers, including Tel Aviv University. The organization is non-profit and is funded mostly by the European Union and the Ford Foundation.
The organization has been the object of hostility ranging from pressure from the Palestinian Authority to mob violence. In 2003, PCPSR's offices in Ramallah were ransacked by dozens of rioters after the center published poll findings showing that only 10% of Palestinian refugees would choose to live in Israel if offered the right of return. Rioters marched from the PCPSR's office to Yassir Arafat's compound a few blocks away. According to Shikaki, the demonstrators wanted to send a message to PA President Mahmoud Abbas that the right of return was non-negotiable.[3] In 2015, the PA required that all Palestinian NGOs, including PCPSR, report their activities and funding to the cabinet.[4]
In 2021, PCPSR released a poll showing a surge in Palestinian support for Hamas and plummeting support for Abbas after the 2021 Israel-Palestine crisis.[5]