Former-USSR immigrants polled also say they feel more at home in Israel.
By Gili Cohen, HAARETZ
Immigrants from the former Soviet Union who came to Israel in the 1990s are moving further to the right of the political spectrum, even as they increasingly feel part of Israeli society, according to a new poll.
According to the study, only 13 percent of immigrants polled said they were prepared to concede any territory at all in exchange for peace with the Palestinians, down from 37 percent in 1999.
The report also found that 84 percent of immigrants say they feel “at home” in Israel, up from 53 percent in a survey conducted 12 years ago. Nevertheless, only 62 percent said they are sure they will stay here, virtually unchanged from 60 percent in 1999.
Dr. Zeev Khanin, the Immigrant Absorption Ministry’s chief scientist, dismissed the significance of this finding, saying that similarly high percentages of veteran Israelis describe themselves as being unsure they will stay here. This ambivalence is due mainly to the challenges of life in Israel, “and isn’t necessarily connected to absorption difficulties,” he argued.
Central Bureau of Statistics data seems to contradict this claim, showing that of Israelis who left the country in 2008 and stayed away for more than a year, almost one-third were immigrants from the former Soviet Union. But the ministry said the number of people leaving the country permanently has dropped since 2004, and today, only some 97,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union live overseas.
The study also surveyed the immigrants’ attitudes toward Israeli Arabs and the Israeli-Arab conflict. It found that while immigrants from the former Soviet Union had negative attitudes toward Arabs back in the 1990s as well, this trend has strengthened in the intervening decade. According to Prof. Majid Al-Haj, Haifa University’s vice president and dean of research, who served as lead researcher on the study, the immigrants’ views are more extreme than those of veteran Israelis.
For instance, the study found, 55 percent of the immigrants said Israel should work to reduce the number of Arabs in the country, compared to only 41 percent of veteran Israelis. About two-thirds said Israeli Arabs constitute a national security risk, compared with 59 percent of veteran Israelis. And only 4 percent would accept their child marrying a Muslim Arab, compared to 9 percent of veteran Israelis.
These findings contradict those of other researchers, who say that after 15 or more years in the country, the views of immigrants from the former Soviet Union are by now little different from those of veteran Israelis.
The survey questioned some 600 immigrants, of whom almost one-fourth would not be defined as Jewish according to Jewish law. Al-Haj said the latter group actually had more liberal attitudes toward the country’s Arab citizens than did veteran Israelis. But they, too, were more hawkish with regard to the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Since the last survey, immigrants’ views have grown even more extreme on the average. For instance, only 7 percent expressed willingness to have a Muslim Arab neighbor, down from 18 percent in 1999. Indeed, Muslim Arabs were at the bottom of the immigrants’ list of desirable neighbors, below foreign workers (who were second-to-last ), Ethiopian Jews and the ultra-Orthodox.
Unsurprisingly, secular Ashkenazi Jews were the most sought-after neighbors.
If at one time, there was hope that immigrants from the former Soviet Union would ease the Jewish-Arab schism inside Israel, these hopes have proven false, Al-Haj told Haaretz.
“Essentially, they joined the existing national consensus, in which Arabs lie beyond the bounds of legitimacy,” he said. “If we thought these immigrants, who are primarily secular, would contribute to broadening the boundaries of legitimacy, it didn’t happen. They didn’t serve as a bridge. The disturbing reality is that immigrants from the Commonwealth of Independent States are leading the polarization rather than the reconciliation.”
@Toni –
.
There are up to a half million Slavs that have received Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return. Halacha (Jewish law)may not consider them Jewish but a good number of these Slavs consider themselves as Jewish and the Israeli government considers them Jewish enough to give them automatic citizenship.
@yamit82 –
There are no Jewish Slavs, except for a small number of converts. Russian Jews, just like Polish Jews are not Slavs but Semites and quite easily distinguishable from their Slavic neighbors. Believe me, the ‘locals’ could usually tell by looks alone that we were Jews and not Slavs.
These russian refugees have a different experience.
They know what a ‘police state’ is. They know what it is like to have ‘enemies’.
They know ‘reality’ as we in the West have insulated ourselves from reality believing that everyone wants the same things that we do and that everyone is prosperous.
The Russian Jewish community is of a high quality. What makes them problematic is that too many are really not Jewish. They often prefer pork to chopped liver.
Slavs either Gentile or Jewish are not very Liberal, as a matter of fact by PC western standards you might call them racists.
I don’t care, they are my kind of folks!! 🙂
Poll of former Russian in Israel: only 13% prepared to concede any
territory for peace with Palestinians
Dr. Aaron Lerner 6 July 2011
Reported in Haaretz – Wed, July 06, 2011
Haifa University Poll of 600 immigrants the former Soviet Union who came to
Israel in the 1990s, of whom almost one-fourth would not be defined as
Jewish according to Jewish law:
13% prepared to concede any territory at all in exchange for peace with the
Palestinians
84% feel at home in Israel
62% are sure they will stay in Israel
55% Israel should work to reduce the number of Arabs in the country
About two-thirds: Israeli Arabs constitute a national security risk
4% would accept their child marrying a Muslim Arab
7% willing to have a Muslim Arab neighbor
And then also some brilliant thoughts… LOL
What “ha’aretz” studiously attempts to avoid is to internalize that the USSR immigrants are gradually returning to being JEWISH. The “right wing” label is purely incidental.
I am trying out the new system
I am trying out Disqus.
I am installing Disqus
I am installing Disqus
GOOD. The problem with Israel has been it’s socialist past. Socialism and it’s extreme form, communism, poison everything. The sooner the fools on the left in Israel realize that the Arab is our enemy the better. I’d a thousand time have a decent Russian neighbor (secular or religious) who didn’t speak a word of Hebrew or English than an “educated” Arab, Ethiopian, or leftist who cannot be trusted – they either never had a western mindset or have rejected it in favor of some insane ideology that has never worked anywhere.
Intersting. Yet, it makes sense. Weren’t they amongst the most highly-educated and highly-skilled of any group, since the Establishment in 1948, to enter en masse? They knew the evils of Marxism and rejected it for the opportunities a freer market offers in Israel – one, in fact, that they helped create. They also know their value on a global scale. Thank heavens they are moving right. One hopes it will help shred the lies and distortions of Gaza’s history.