Poll finds majority of Israelis believe country is in a state of emergency
IDI survey shows most don’t believe reservists should be dismissed for not volunteering; about half think their personal financial situation will be negatively affected by overhaul
A majority of Israelis believe the country is in a “state of emergency,” with the view highly prevalent among those who voted for opposition parties, according to a poll published Tuesday.
The Israeli Voice Index, produced monthly by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) think tank, showed that 58 percent of Israelis hold that view, with only one-third of Israelis thinking the country is not.
The responses were mainly divided along political ideology lines, with less than one-third of those who voted for parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline coalition believing Israel is in a state of emergency, the IDI said.
When asked about reservists saying that they will no longer volunteer for duty, only a small number of respondents said they should be dismissed for doing so — 9% on the left, 13% who voted at the center, and 33% of those who hold right-wing views.
As the government advanced the first major bill of its contentious judicial overhaul, more than 10,000 reservists who frequently show up for duty on a voluntary basis said they would no longer do so.
The reservists warned they would not be able to serve in an undemocratic Israel, which some charge the country will become if the government’s overhaul plans are realized. The IDF relies heavily on volunteering reservists, especially pilots, for its routine activities.
Pollsters also asked respondents about the reasonableness law, passed last month to curtail judicial oversight on decisions by elected officials.
The survey found 54% of Israelis thought that the law was bad for democracy and a majority across the political spectrum thought it would have been preferable for a compromise to have been reached on the issue.
While a large majority of those who voted for coalition parties thought the law was positive — including 84% of ultra-Orthodox respondents — only 12% of Arab Israelis said they thought the law was good.
The law was approved by all 64 coalition members — with the entire 56-strong opposition boycotting the vote — despite the sustained mass protests, vehement opposition from top judicial, security, economic and public figures, and repeated warnings from allies, chief among them the US.
Amid growing concern over policing of the protests, and rising allegations of brutality, the survey also examined attitudes toward law enforcement’s performance at the demonstrations.
The poll found the number of left-center people who thought the performance of law enforcement has not been good, has risen significantly since March.
Of those who were classified as being on the left, 62% gave the police a poor or very poor rating for their policing of the protests, a massive rise on the 10% who answered that way in March.
For those on the center, 41% gave law enforcement a low rating, compared to 22% in March, and on the right, 33% gave the police a poor grade compared to 37.%% earlier this year.
Around one third of respondents think the government will continue with its plans to remake the judiciary, another third think the coalition will move forward at a slower pace, and 13% believe the legislation will be frozen for a period.
Just four percent of respondents believe the government will shelve the program to dramatically weaken the judiciary.
Meanwhile, 56% of Israelis think the protest movement — the largest in the nation’s history — will grow stronger, and just 28% predicted it would weaken.
When broken down to examine political affiliation, 87% on the left believe the protests will get stronger, as do 65.5% of those on the center and 45% on the right.
Meanwhile, around half of those who responded to the survey said they believe that their personal financial situation will deteriorate due to the negative impact of the overhaul on the economy.
Israeli and international finance officials and business leaders have consistently warned of the damage to the economy by the overhaul, and tech workers make up a prominent part of the protest movement.
Netanyahu and his government have been largely dismissive of the warnings.
The poll questioned 615 men and women in Hebrew and 150 in Arabic and has a margin of error of +-3.55%.
