Poll: Only 51% of Israeli Jews Believe in Equal Rights for Arabs and Jews

By Ane Irazabal - IMEMC & Agencies

According to a report released on Tuesday, conducted by the Israel Democratic Institute, almost half of Israeli Jews refuse the coexistence between Arab and Jews communities in Israel. Only 51 percent of those polled said that Israeli Arabs and Jews should have equal rights.

The study showed that 53 percent of Israeli Jews believed the state has the right to encourage Arab citizens to emigrate from Israel, and 55 percent said Jewish cities should receive more government resources than Arab communities.

In addition, over 62 percent of Israeli Jews said that, as long as the Israeli-Palestine conflict continues, the state should not take into account Israeli Arab opinion about the country's foreign policy.

Approximately 86 percent of Israeli Jews believed any political decision made by the Knesset, with regard to Israel's future, must be approved by a Jewish majority. This refers to a date which showed that only 50 percent of those polled think that anti-Zionist parties should be allowed to run for the Knesset.

In relation to the coexistence between Jews and other communities, the study revealed that almost half of the Israeli Jews polled would rather not live next to an Arab neighbor; 25 percent would find it disruptive to have a homosexual couple next door, and 17 would be bothered to have Ethiopian neighbors.

The research stressed that there is a high correlation between the level of religious observance and the belief that Arabs should have different rights, with a special reference to Russian Jew immigrants who, according to the poll, are the least liberal amongst the population of Israel.

The study, called "Israeli Democracy Index", was conducted by six researchers, and questioned more than 1,200 people in different public opinion polls.