Poll: Majority of Israeli Jews Would Support Apartheid Regime in Israel

About a third of the Jewish public - and 70 percent of the orthodox community - would support barring Israeli Arabs from voting

Most Israeli Jews support the establishment of an apartheid regime in Israel if it formally annexes the West Bank, and a majority explicitly favors systematic discrimination against Israeli Arabs, according to a new poll.

A new survey conducted by the Israeli data firm Dialog “exposes anti-Arab, ultra-nationalist views espoused by a majority of Israeli Jews,” reports the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they want preferences for Jews over Arabs in admission to jobs in government ministries. Almost half, 49 percent, want the state to treat Jewish citizens better than Arab ones; 42 percent don’t want to live in the same building with Arabs and 42 percent don’t want their children in the same classes with Arab children.

About a third of the Jewish public wants a law barring Israeli Arabs from voting for the Knesset 69 percent objects to giving Palestinians the right to vote if Israel annexes the West Bank.

“A sweeping 74 percent majority is in favor of separate roads for Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank,” Haaretz reports. “Almost half – 47 percent – want part of Israel’s Arab population to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority and 36 percent support transferring some of the Arab towns from Israel to the PA, in exchange for keeping some of the West Bank settlements.”

‘Transferring’ is another term for ethnic cleansing and represents a stark violation of international law. While the West Bank and Gaza have not been formally annexed, “most of the Jewish public (58 percent ) already believes Israel practices apartheid against Arabs.”

Author: John Glaser

John Glaser writes for Antiwar.com.