Haaretz ordered a survey to gauge public support for various solutions once the peace talks broke down last year. The survey was conducted between June 9-11, 2014 and published in July last year. It is even more interesting and relevant due to its age, because it was conduced prior to the following significant events: - Three Israeli children were kidnapped and killed in the West Bank (June 12) - A Palestinian child was kidnapped and killed in East Jerusalem (July 2) - The IDF and Hamas began lobbing rockets/bombs into and out of Gaza in earnest. (July 7) - Operation Protective Edge began (July 8). In other words, the survey was completed in a time of "quiet". Here's how Haaretz summarized the results:
In the question that presented possible long-term solutions, partition of the country was the most popular, preferred by 28 percent of those polled. At the same time, two other possibilities were not far behind: “Continuation of the present situation” is favored by 25 percent; and an apartheid state model – “one state, in which the Palestinians will have limited rights,” as the question phrased it – is preferred by 23 percent of Israelis. Only 10 percent said they would opt for a state in which all citizens will have equal rights.
So when asked which long-term solution was best for Israel, Israelis preferred: 58%: One State 28%: Two States 14%: Don't Know Digging into the 58% who are for a single state between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, we have: 10%: One State with equal rights 23%: Open Apartheid where Palestinians have limited rights 25%: Implicit Apartheid enforced by a long-term military occupation. Personally, I am most impressed by the 14% who "Don't Know". They show us that you can go about your daily life and ignore the "peace process" that never seems to go anywhere. I applaud them, and I suspect if I were in my twenties in Israel, I'd probably be in the "Don't Know" camp. Now if only Palestinians had the ability to go about their daily lives not knowing or caring about the peace process. And in case you don't believe so many would want apartheid, the pollsters asked a more direct question on that subject. "If Israel were to annex territory, do you think the Palestinians living there should be given full rights, including the right to vote for the Knesset, or partial rights, without the right to vote for the Knesset?". 56% said partial rights, 31% said full rights, and 13% said Don't Know. Supporters of a two-state solution may highlight a different question in the survey:
Sixty percent of those asked responded affirmatively to the question, “If the prime minister reaches an agreement, whereby a Palestinian state will be established alongside Israel, would you support or not support that agreement?” Only 32 percent said they wouldn’t support such an agreement, while 7 percent said they didn’t know.
I believe their hopes are misplaced since it seems Israelis do not understand the parameters of a two-state solution:
When the implications of partition and the specifics of an agreement were presented to the respondents – “The establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 boundaries with border modifications, most of the settlements to be annexed to Israel, Jerusalem to be divided and no return of refugees” – support for the two-state solution plummeted to 35 percent, with 58 percent replying in the negative.
Or as Haaretz put it "the Israeli public is seemingly unfamiliar with the geopolitical situation". And that's with "no return of refugees". I expect it would plunge further if there were any support for even a limited "right of return". Perhaps that is because no Israeli leader who values his life cares to present it to the Israeli public. Yet another reason to respect the 14% who have thrown up their hands and are honest enough to say it by responding "Don't Know". To relate the Palestinian quest for self-determination and justice to the American context, I'd like to let two famous quotes stand in for lengthy expositions on I/P history: When discussing slavery in the US, Jefferson remarked:
We have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.
And in reference to Jim Crow, MLK said:
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."
Cross-posted at NotMeUs.org | @subirgrewal
A little more below the fold:
And for those who were shocked to learn in March 2015, just before the recent election, that Benjamin Netanyahu will not allow a Palestinian state on his watch, the Israeli public has known that for some time (as has anyone who's been paying any attention to Likud's 1977 party platform or the various intra-party discussions since).
the same public that says it will support a partition agreement if it’s supported by the prime minister doesn’t actually believe the prime minister’s stated intention to arrive at any such agreement. Thus, 54 percent replied in the negative and only 37 percent in the affirmative to the question, “Do you believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he says he wants to promote a peace agreement with two states for two nations?”
And if you think settlements do not enjoy broad support in Israel:
The question of what would be preferable – a peace agreement that would require the evacuation of settlements, or continuation of the settlements without an agreement – drew almost identical responses: 45 percent are in favor of an agreement and settlement evacuation; 43 percent are in favor of the current status quo with the settlements.
Note on method:
The survey was conducted by the Dialog Institute, under the supervision of Prof. Camil Fuchs of Tel Aviv University. The sample of 504 respondents was weighted according to population groups, gender, age and voting in the last Knesset election. The survey was conducted June 9-11 (with a 4.4 percent margin of error).
A similar survey conducted in 2012 yielded similar results. Some excerpts:
A third of the Jewish public wants a law barring Israeli Arabs from voting for the Knesset
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.
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.
Haaretz ended up changing the headline on that article and two columnists challenged some of the interpretations. Gideon seems to have caused a firestorm and issued a combative clarification. The quotes I used above were not the subject of controversy and appear to accurately reflect the survey's results. That 2012 survey was discussed in this diary tangentially. Lastly, a survey of Iranians was conducted around the same time to gauge views towards the nuclear talks and also normalization of relations with Israel. The results are interesting.