Most Israeli Jews back segregation from Palestinians, study reveals

Most Israeli Jews support segregation from Palestinians in Israel, research on inter-communal relations has revealed.

Around 60 percent of Jews felt it best the two groups live apart, a March survey by the Israel Democracy Institute found – a jump from 45 percent in April of last year, Haaretz reported on Monday.

It comes amid an increasing international consensus that Israel practises a system of apartheid against Palestinians – including Palestinian citizens of Israel – with Amnesty International reaching this conclusion in February.

"These statistics are worrying but not surprising," Amnesty UK crisis response manager Kristyan Benedict told The New Arab.

"Palestinians in Israel and the OPT [occupied Palestinian territories], and Palestinian refugees are treated as an inferior racial group and deliberately deprived of their rights.

"Decades of deliberately unequal treatment have left Palestinians marginalised, impoverished, and in a state of constant fear and insecurity.

"As we speak, Palestinians are being forced out of their homes, separated from their families, and confined behind checkpoints and walls."

Almost 70 percent of self-described right-wing Israeli Jews believed it preferable they live apart from Palestinians, with nearly one in two centrists and about one in three left-wingers feeling similarly.

Among ultra-Orthodox Jews, around 80 percent supported segregation, with about two in three members of the traditional and religious community, and almost one in two secular Jews also feeling this way.

Women and young Jews were more likely to be pro-segregation.

Tamar Hermann, who was in charge of the survey, told Haaretz that Israeli Jews have become less willing to "live in proximity to Arabs" or let them buy land outside Palestinian areas of Israel than they were in 2021.

Palestinian citizens of Israel largely rejected segregation, with only 20 percent backing it – a proportion that has remained steady for years now.

There was, however, a notable split along party-political lines.

An @amnesty report from earlier this year concluded that "Israel’s cruel policies of segregation, dispossession, and exclusion across all territories under its control clearly amount to apartheid." https://t.co/mYk0IhoA93

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) March 21, 2022

While one in five Palestinian Joint List voters said they were in favour of living apart, this figure rose to about one in three for those who cast their ballots for the United Arab List, or Raam.

This is despite Raam currently participating in Israel's coalition government as the first Palestinian party ever to do so.

The survey also found 68 percent of Palestinian citizens of Israel believe Arabs can feel that they belong to the Palestinian people while remaining loyal Israelis.

Among Jews, only 28 percent accepted this.

While Palestinians were less likely to believe Arabs can maintain their Palestinian identity and be faithful to Israel in March than in 2021, there was a much steeper downswing within the Jewish-Israeli population.

Palestinian citizens of Israel below the age of 35 were less likely to hold this belief than older Palestinians in 2022.