75% of Israeli Jews See No Contradiction Between Israel Being Jewish and Democratic. Yet 40% of Israeli Jews believe that passing the bill would damage the interests of the State.
58% of Israeli Jews favour continuing peace talks. Yet 74% of Israeli Jews do not believe they will lead to peace.
So will the positions of Bennett and Netanyahu on these matters help or hurt them in the elections?
The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) and Tel Aviv University are releasing the monthly Peace Index poll, which this month covers Israeli public opinion on Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, the proposed Basic Law “Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People,” and recent Arab-Jewish tensions.
Israeli-Palestinian Peace Negotiations
- Favor Peace Talks: 63% of Israelis (58% of Israeli Jews and 90% of Israeli Arabs) favor peace talks being conducted between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. 34% of Israelis (39% of Israeli Jews and 9% of Israeli Arabs) oppose negotiations.
- Chances for Peace: 70% of Israelis (74% of Jewish Israelis and 51% of Israeli Arabs) do not believe that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority will lead to peace in the coming years. 29% of Israelis (25% of Jewish Israelis and 49% of Israeli Arabs) believe that negotiations will lead to peace in the coming years.
- Responsibility for Stalled Talks: 48% of the Jewish public believes the Palestinian side is mainly responsible for negotiations not being renewed, while 41% believe both sides are equally responsible and 9% think the Israeli side is mostly responsible. 61% of the Arab public thinks both sides are equally to blame, 29% think the Israeli side is mostly to blame, and 1% think the Palestinian side is mostly to blame.
- Peace Is More Important To…: 41% of Israeli Jews believe it is more important to Israel to reach a permanent peace settlement, while 39% believe it is equally important to both sides and 16% believe it is more important to the Palestinians. 63% of Israeli Arabs believe it is equally important to both sides, 22% believe it is more important to the Palestinians, and 8% believe it is more important to Israel.
- Avoiding a Binational State: 52% of Jewish Israelis think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that a peace agreement is essential to preventing a situation in the foreseeable future when Israel will become a binational state without a Jewish majority is true; 38% of Jewish Israelis do not think this statement is true. 53% of Arab Israelis do not think Netanyahu’s statement calling a peace agreement essential to avoiding a binational Israel is true, while 30% believe that it is true.
- Cause for Abbas’s Weakness and Hamas’s Rise: 58% of the Jewish public does not believe that the cause for Hamas’s rising influence in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s waning status is mainly due to the standstill in peace talks; 34% of the Jewish public does believe that the standstill is the main reason. 52% of the Arab public does believe the halted negotiations are the main cause for Hamas’s rise and Abbas’s weakening, while 22% of the Arab public disagrees.
Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State
- Jewish and Democratic: 73% of Israeli Jews believe there is no contradiction between Israel being both a Jewish state and a democratic state; this includes 77% of the self-identified right, 76% of the center, and 57% of the left. 24% of Israeli Jews believe there is a contradiction between the two. 83% of Israeli Arabs believe there is a contradiction between Israel being both Jewish and democratic, while 14% believe there is no contradiction between the two.
- Importance of Democracy: To 88% of Israelis it is important to a very large or quite large extent that Israel be a democratic state. To 12% of Israelis it is important only to a small or to no extent that Israel be democratic.
- Principles of the Declaration of Independence: 52% of Jewish Israelis do not believe that passing the Nation State Law will contradict the principles embodied in the Israeli Declaration of Independence, according to which Israel will be a Jewish and democratic state; 36% of Jewish Israelis believe the law’s passage would contradict the Declaration’s principles. 82% of Arab Israelis believe the Nation State Law would contradict the Declaration’s principles, while 12% do not believe there would be a contradiction.
- Timing of the Law: 64% of Israelis (61% of Israeli Jews and 77% of Israeli Arabs) think Netanyahu brought the Nation State Law to a vote mainly to boost his popularity with the right-wing and settlers, while 28% of Israelis (30% of Israeli Jews and 18% of Israeli Arabs) think he brought the bill to a vote mainly from a sincere concern for strengthening the Jewish dimension of the state.
- Law in the Interest of the State: 40% of Israeli Jews and 71% of Israeli Arabs think that passing the Nation State Law would damage the interests of the State of Israel. 31% of Israeli Jews and 12% of Israeli Arabs think the law’s passage would promote the interests of the state. 22% of Israeli Jews and 8% of Israeli Arabs think the law would neither promote nor damage the state’s interests.
Arab-Jewish Tensions
Following a recent spate of terror attacks, a call by the Mayor of Ashkelon to not employ Arabs in construction at educational institutions, and an arson attack on a bilingual school in Jerusalem, Israeli opinion was assessed on the following issues.
- Justifying Attacks on Coexistence Schools: 90% of Jewish Israelis do not justify attacks on joint Jewish-Arab schools, such as the recent attempt to burn down a bilingual school in Jerusalem; 6% do justify it. 67% of Arab Israelis also do not justify such attacks, while 28% of them do strongly or moderately justify such attacks.
- Employing Arabs in Hospitals & Nursing Institutions: 69% of Israeli Jews support employing Arab doctors or nurses in hospitals and nursing institutions. 26% oppose their employment.
- Employing Israeli Arabs in “Sensitive” Locations: 52% of Israeli Jews oppose employing Israeli Arabs in “sensitive” work locations, such as construction sites close to preschools and kindergartens; 43% of Israeli Jews support employment of Israeli Arabs in “sensitive” work locations.
This survey, conducted on December 1 – 3, 2014, included 602 respondents who constitute a representative sample of the adult population of Israel. The maximum measurement error for a sample of this size is ±4.1%.
The full results of the Peace Index are available on the Peace Index website.
For more information, contact:
Yehoshua Oz
Director of International Communications
press@idi.org.il
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