New Survey: Half of Israeli Jews Support Expulsion of Arabs

A new survey regarding the political views of religious and secular Jews in Israel shows that nearly half of Israelis believe Arabs should be expelled from the country or relocated elsewhere. According to Reuters, the results of this survey conducted by the independent research institute Pew were published on Tuesday in the Washington Post. The survey indicates that many Israelis, both Jewish and Arab, have lost hope for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel as a solution to the Middle East crisis. 48% of Israeli Jews agree with expelling Arabs from the country or relocating them elsewhere. Arab citizens constitute 19% of Israel's 8.4 million population. Among those who identify as Orthodox, religious, or 'traditional' Jews, between 54% to 71% support the expulsion of Arabs, while among secular Jews, supporters of this view are around 36%. Pew conducted approximately 4,600 face-to-face interviews from October 2014 to May 2015, with 3,789 of these with Jews, 871 with Muslims, 468 with Christians, and 439 with Druze residing in Israel. The President of Israel described the results of this survey as a 'wake-up call for Israeli society.' The survey also explored the role of religion in the democracy of a society established as a Jewish state, revealing deep divisions between Orthodox and religious respondents and secular individuals. According to the survey, 89% of secular Jews believe that in the case of a conflict between democratic principles and Jewish laws and traditions, democratic principles should take precedence. Conversely, the same percentage of ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that Jewish traditions and laws should take precedence. 80% of Arab Israelis believe there is severe discrimination against Muslims, who are the largest religious minority in the country. In contrast, about 79% of Jewish respondents believe that Jews should have a preferential position in Israel. Reuven Rivlin, the President of Israel, stated after receiving the survey results, 'The existence of such a deep divide between religious and secular individuals, between the view that sees Israel as a Jewish state and the view that sees it as a democratic government, pains me; another issue is the views and attitudes towards Arab citizens.' In this survey, 9% of Israeli citizens identified as ultra-Orthodox Jews, 13% as religious, 29% as 'traditional,' and 49% as secular. The survey also showed that religious and observant Jews are generally politically right-wing, while most secular individuals consider themselves moderate. Another example of disagreement on social and religious issues is that a wide majority of Orthodox and religious Jews defend the closure of most public transportation on Sabbath days, while 94% of secular citizens oppose this. Most secular citizens primarily identify as Israelis, whereas 91% of Orthodox Jews and 80% of religious Jews claim to primarily identify as Jewish. About 40% of Israeli Jews believe that a solution can be found for coexistence between Israel and a future Palestinian state, but a similar percentage believes this is not possible. Among Arab Israelis, about half believe this solution is feasible, whereas this figure was around 74% in 2013. Israeli-Palestinian talks in 2014 failed just before the onset of a seven-week war between Israel and armed Palestinian groups in Gaza.