According to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan, Washington-based think tank, nearly half, about 48%, of Jewish Israelis agree that Arabs should be expelled or transferred from Israel. The survey question about whether Arabs should be expelled from Israel makes no distinction between Palestinian Arabs of the West Bank and Arab citizens of Israel. The poll was conducted among Jewish and non-Jewish Israelis from the end of 2014 until the middle of 2015, before the latest wave of terror.
Israeli opinion on transfer of Arabs correlates with their religious identity. 71% of “Datim” or Orthodox Jews agree that Arabs should be transferred or expelled from Israel. “Hilonim,” or secular Jews, feel differently, with 58% disagreeing with the idea. “But even among these self-described secular Israeli Jews,” the study noted, “about one-third (36%) favor the expulsion of Arabs from the country.”
Criticizing the wording of the transfer query, the Israel Prize laureate Sammy Smooha, expounded that the question phrasing did not specify the identity – making it unclear if the question referred to the transfer of West Bank residents who reside in Israel proper but are not Israeli citizens per se. Smooha further stated that “It’s absolutely clear to me that about a quarter of the Jews oppose coexistence with the Arab citizens, but the vast majority of Jews accepts coexistence. Among the Arab public, too, between a quarter and a third oppose coexistence. On both sides there is a population that rules out coexistence, but they won’t set the rules. That will be done by the mainstream, which is prepared to make concessions to the other side.” Smooha added that “the Jews have come to understand that the Arabs are here to stay and that they have to get along, and they don’t want to upset everything or sabotage coexistence.”
In addition, the IDI’s Peace Index contradicted Pew’s findings: when asking if the government should “encourage immigration of Arabs out of the country” in 2015, about 55% of Israeli Jews disagreed and 37% agreed.
Another Pew survey finding states that a solid majority of Israeli Jews also feel (79%) they deserve unspecified “preferential treatment” over non-Jewish minorities in Israel. However, the majority of Israeli Jews (76%) said they view a Jewish state as being compatible with democracy. The opposite was found among Arab citizens, with 64% maintaining Israel cannot be both a democracy and a Jewish state (63% of Muslims, 72% of Christians, and 58% of Druze feel this way).
Commenting on the survey results, President Reuven Rivlin on Tuesday said it was “unconscionable” that Jewish Israelis should view the State of Israel as a democracy only with regard to its Jewish citizens, and urged the public to engage in “soul-searching”. The idea that the State of Israel could be democracy only for its Jewish citizens is unconscionable and we must find a way to address this.
Joint (Arab) List MK Yousef Jabarin slammed the results, saying that “the transfer of civilians, for whatever reason, is a crime against humanity, and I’m disturbed to see that half of the Jewish respondents support such a move.” MK Jabarin called on all the country’s leaders to “come to their senses and change their discourse toward Arab citizens – from a discourse of incitement, hatred and division to a respectful dialogue that promotes coexistence between Jews and Arabs and refers to Arab citizens as citizens with equal rights and equal status.”
Believing that, “our democratic values are also born out of our Jewish faith”, President Rivlin urged that the survey should be placed before decision makers in Israel,” and said it “must serve as a wake-up call for Israeli society, to bring about some soul-searching and moral reflection.”
read the complete Pew Research Center Survey: Israel’s Religiously Divided Society
Further Reading: Opinion
Understanding Pew: Factoring in Israeli culture and history – Jerusalem Post – Shlomo Fischer – 3.14.16. “One finding, that 48 percent of the Jewish Israeli public support “expulsion and transfer of Arabs from Israel,” drew international media attention.”
The Pew Report and Israel’s separation-integration problem – Times of Israel – Alex Sinclair – 3.13.16. “Many of Israel’s current woes, both internal and external, stem from a misconceived polarization in how the country deals with difference.”
Two Blows Against Arab-Jewish Reconciliation in Israel – Haaretz – Moshe Arens – 3.13.16. “How can you integrate Israeli Arabs into a society if half of its members would like to see you expelled from the country?”
Do Israeli Jews really want to expel Arabs? The (huge) holes in the Pew survey – Jewish Chronicle – Nathan Jeffay – 3.9.16. “Every opinion pollster hopes that their survey will generate a strong headline, and when Pew released its magnum opus on Israel this week, it certainly got its wish.”
A Sloppy Poll Distorts Israelis’ Views on Israeli Arabs – Commentary Magazine – Evelyn Gordon – 3.9.16. “The Israeli media were virtually unanimous yesterday in headlining a new Pew survey of Israeli opinion.”
Pew Poll Reveals the Pathology of Israeli Jews – Haaretz – Ravit Hecht – 3.9.16. “Sixty-five percent claim remembering the Holocaust is essential to their Jewish identity, suggesting victimhood is embedded in the national character. “
A poll apart – Jerusalem Post – Editorial – 3.9.16. “The Pew survey, which covers some 230 pages, was conducted by face-to-face interviews in Hebrew, Arabic and Russian among 5,601 Israeli adults 18 and older from October 2014 through May 2015.”