JERUSALEM, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The Gaza war has dramatically increased the sense of solidarity with Israel among its 21% Arab minority, who often identify as Palestinian and have long complained of discrimination by the state, a poll published on Friday found.
Asked if they feel part of the country, 70% of Arab citizens polled said "yes", up from 48% in June, the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) said, describing it as the highest finding for the sector since it began such surveys 20 years ago.
However, just 27% of Arab respondents said they felt optimistic about Israel's future, compared to 72% of Jews.
Among Israel's Jewish majority, 94% feel part of the country, the IDI said, a peak last matched in 2003, when the country was at the height of military operation against Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank.
Israel went to war in Gaza following an Oct 7 cross-border onslaught by Hamas gunmen in which some 1,400 of its civilians and soldiers were killed, among them Arab citizens. More than 10,000 Palestinian in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces since.
The Arab minority, who are predominantly Muslim, are descended from Palestinian Arabs who remained in Israel when it was founded in the 1948 war in what had been British-ruled Palestine. Hundreds of thousands of their kinsmen fled or were expelled.
Asked if, given an alternative Western citizenship, they would leave Israel, 80.5% of Jewish respondents said they would stay, as did 59% of Arab respondents, the IDI poll found.
Israel's far-right minister for police has warned that internal Arab unrest could be sparked as it was during a previous Gaza war in 2021. But this has not been borne out.
Police have carried out arrests among Arab citizens accused of social media posts inciting pro-Palestinian violence, and on Thursday arrested five leaders of the Arab community who had planned to organise an anti-war protest.
Lawyers for those arrested called the moves undemocratic.
The IDI is a non-partisan think tank. Its poll was conducted on November 5-6, had a representative sample of 502 respondents and a margin of error of 4.04%.
Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Angus MacSwan
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Emergency-Ad3844 on November 10th, 2023 at 19:43 UTC »
Of course - many Arab Israelis have themselves or family members/friends been subject to the brutality and oppression of hardline Islamism in neighboring countries. They know exactly what the genocidal worldview of political Islamism entails, and feel a strong connection to a pluralistic, if imperfect, society like Israel.
momo11arsenal on November 10th, 2023 at 17:07 UTC »
Arab Israelis are being arrested if they protest the ongoing war in Gaza. No one wants to be charged with supporting terrorists so obviously they’ll answer that.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-09/ty-article/.premium/four-former-arab-israeli-lawmakers-detained-for-questioning-over-plans-for-antiwar-protest/0000018b-b3b5-dedf-adab-f7b5c11e0000
From the article: Israel Police detained the chairman of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, in addition to three former Arab Knesset members, for questioning in connection with plans to organize a protest against the Israel-Hamas war
Yelesa on November 10th, 2023 at 16:39 UTC »
SS: The Israel Democracy Institute, a non-partisan think tank, conducted this survey with a margin of error of 4.04%. These were the 3 main conclusions of the poll:
More Arab people in Israel now feel like they belong to the country, with 70% feeling part of Israel, up from 48% back in June. Only 27% of Arab respondents are optimistic about Israel's future, in contrast to 72% of Jewish people. If offered Western citizenship, 59% Arabs in Israel would still prefer to stay, compared to 80.5% of Jewish peopleThis paints a more positive view of Palestinians in Israel than recent events have shown, necessitating the importance of distinguishing average Arabs in Israel from Hamas, and evidence that, to some extent, global criticism for Israel has caused them to become more inclusive of its minorities.