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Survey: Most Israeli Jews wouldn't give
Palestinians vote if West Bank was annexed
Survey, conducted by Dialog on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, exposes antiArab, ultra-nationalist views espoused by a majority of Israeli Jews.
Oct.23, 2012
By Gideon Levy
Palestinians waiting to cross through the Hawara checkpoint near Nablus. Photo by Nir Kafri
CLARIFICATION: The original headline for this piece, 'Most Israelis support an apartheid
regime in Israel,' did not accurately reflect the findings of the Dialog poll. The question to
which most respondents answered in the negative did not relate to the current situation,
but to a hypothetical situation in the future: 'If Israel annexes territories in Judea and
Samaria, should 2.5 million Palestinians be given the right to vote for the Knesset?'
Most of the Jewish public in Israel supports the establishment of an apartheid regime in
Israel if it formally annexes the West Bank.
A majority also explicitly favors discrimination against the state's Arab citizens, a survey
shows.
The survey, conducted by Dialog on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, exposes anti-Arab, ultranationalist views espoused by a majority of Israeli Jews. The survey was commissioned by
the Yisraela Goldblum Fund and is based on a sample of 503 interviewees.
The questions were written by a group of academia-based peace and civil rights activists.
Dialog is headed by Tel Aviv University Prof. Camil Fuchs.
The majority of the Jewish public, 59 percent, wants preference for Jews over Arabs in
admission to jobs in government ministries. Almost half the Jews, 49 percent, want the
state to treat Jewish citizens better than Arab ones; 42 percent don't want to live in the
same building with Arabs and 42 percent don't want their children in the same class with
Arab children.
A third of the Jewish public wants a law barring Israeli Arabs from voting for the Knesset
and a large majority of 69 percent objects to giving 2.5 million Palestinians the right to vote
if Israel annexes the West Bank.
A sweeping 74 percent majority is in favor of separate roads for Israelis and Palestinians in
the West Bank. A quarter - 24 percent - believe separate roads are "a good situation" and
50 percent believe they are "a necessary situation."
Almost half - 47 percent - want part of Israel's Arab population to be transferred to the
Palestinian Authority and 36 percent support transferring some of the Arab towns from
Israel to the PA, in exchange for keeping some of the West Bank settlements.
Although the territories have not been annexed, most of the Jewish public (58 percent )
already believes Israel practices apartheid against Arabs. Only 31 percent think such a
system is not in force here. Over a third (38 percent ) of the Jewish public wants Israel to
annex the territories with settlements on them, while 48 percent object.
The survey distinguishes among the various communities in Israeli society - secular,
observant, religious, ultra-Orthodox and former Soviet immigrants. The ultra-Orthodox, in
contrast to those who described themselves as religious or observant, hold the most
extreme positions against the Palestinians. An overwhelming majority (83 percent ) of
Haredim are in favor of segregated roads and 71 percent are in favor of transfer.
The ultra-Orthodox are also the most anti-Arab group - 70 percent of them support legally
barring Israeli Arabs from voting, 82 percent support preferential treatment from the state
toward Jews, and 95 percent are in favor of discrimination against Arabs in admission to
workplaces.
The group classifying itself as religious is the second most anti-Arab. New immigrants from
former Soviet states are closer in their views of the Palestinians to secular Israelis, and are
far less radical than the religious and Haredi groups. However, the number of people who
answered "don't know" in the "Russian" community was higher than in any other.
The Russians register the highest rate of satisfaction with life in Israel (77 percent ) and the
secular Israelis the lowest - only 63 percent. On average, 69 percent of Israelis are satisfied
with life in Israel.
Secular Israelis appear to be the least racist - 68 percent of them would not mind having
Arab neighbors in their apartment building, 73 percent would not mind Arab students in
their children's class and 50 percent believe Arabs should not be discriminated against in
admission to workplaces.
The survey indicates that a third to half of Jewish Israelis want to live in a state that
practices formal, open discrimination against its Arab citizens. An even larger majority
wants to live in an apartheid state if Israel annexes the territories.
The survey conductors say perhaps the term "apartheid" was not clear enough to some
interviewees. However, the interviewees did not object strongly to describing Israel's
character as "apartheid" already today, without annexing the territories. Only 31 percent
objected to calling Israel an "apartheid state" and said "there's no apartheid at all."
In contrast, 39 percent believe apartheid is practiced "in a few fields"; 19 percent believe
"there's apartheid in many fields" and 11 percent do not know.
The "Russians," as the survey calls them, display the most objection to classifying their new
country as an apartheid state. A third of them - 35 percent - believe Israel practices no
apartheid at all, compared to 28 percent of the secular and ultra-Orthodox communities, 27
percent of the religious and 30 percent of the observant Jews who hold that view.
Altogether, 58 percent of all the groups believe Israel practices apartheid "in a few fields" or
"in many fields," while 11 percent don't know.
Finally, the interviewees were asked whether "a famous American author [who] is boycotting Israel,
claiming it practices apartheid" should be boycotted or invited to Israel. About half (48 percent) said
she should be invited to Israel, 28 percent suggest no response and only 15 percent call to boycott
her.53