Amid war, poll finds Arab Israelis’ sense of kinship with state at a 20-year high
70% of Arabs, 94% of Jews say they feel a part of the country and its problems; but views on future diverge, with 72% of Jews and only 27% of Arabs optimistic
The percentage of Arab Israelis who feel kinship with the state has risen dramatically since war with Hamas broke out on October 7, a new survey has found.
The poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found the percentage of both Jewish and Arab Israelis who said they feel a part of the State of Israel and its problems at a 20-year high, at 94% and 70% respectively. Among Arabs, the figure stood at 48% in June.
Conversely, Jews and Arabs showed very different results regarding their optimism about the future of the country, with Arabs at a 5-month low, at 27%. Meanwhile, Jews were at a five-month high of 72% — up from 52% in June, amid the internal fight over the government’s contentious judicial overhaul, and slightly up from a rate of 65%-68% in mid-October, shortly after the Hamas attack.
Asked how they rated Israeli society’s resilience, 90% of Jews and 58% of Arabs said it was high.
The survey also found a majority of Israelis (61%) believe the government’s focus on its highly contentious judicial overhaul efforts played a part in Hamas’s decision to launch the assault, and affected the country’s readiness for it.
Asked whether Israel should negotiate immediately for the release of over 240 people abducted to Gaza, 38% said it should but while continuing to fight, 22% said it shouldn’t negotiate, 21% said it should even if it means stopping the military campaign, 10% said it should not negotiate right now, but can when fighting concludes, and 9% didn’t know.
In the October 7 Hamas offensive in southern Israel, thousands of terrorists broke through the border and killed some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducted over 240. Israel has waged war on Hamas ever since. The terror group claims over 11,000 people have been killed in the Strip, figures that cannot be verified.
The IDI survey was conducted via the internet and by phone between November 5–6. The maximum sampling error was ±4.04% at a confidence level of 95%.
