Israeli border police check Palestinians before Friday prayers in the Old City of Jerusalem, November 10, 2023. Portal/Latifeh Abdellatif ACQUIRES LICENSE RIGHTS
JERUSALEM, Nov 10 (Portal) – The Gaza war has dramatically increased feelings of solidarity with Israel among its 21% Arab minority, which often identifies as Palestinian and has long complained of discrimination by the state, according to a report on Survey published Friday showed.
When asked if they felt part of the country, 70% of Arab citizens surveyed answered “yes,” up from 48% in June, the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) said, calling it the highest finding for the sector since Such surveys began 20 years ago.
However, only 27% of Arab respondents said they were optimistic about Israel’s future, compared to 72% of Jews.
Among Israel’s Jewish majority, 94% feel part of the country, according to IDI, a high last reached in 2003 when the country was at the height of military operations against Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank.
After a cross-border attack by Hamas gunmen on October 7, Israel launched a war in Gaza that killed about 1,400 of its civilians and soldiers, including Arab citizens. Since then, more than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces.
The Arab minority, predominantly Muslim, is descended from Palestinian Arabs who remained in Israel when it was founded in former British-ruled Palestine during the 1948 war. Hundreds of thousands of their relatives fled or were displaced.
When asked whether they would leave Israel if they had an alternative Western citizenship, 80.5% of Jewish respondents said they would stay, as did 59% of Arab respondents, the IDI survey found.
Israel’s far-right police minister has warned that internal Arab unrest like a previous Gaza war could be sparked in 2021. However, this has not been confirmed.
Police have arrested Arab citizens accused of social media posts inciting pro-Palestinian violence and arrested five Arab community leaders on Thursday who had planned to organize an anti-war protest.
Lawyers for those arrested described the measures as undemocratic.
The IDI is a non-partisan think tank. The survey was conducted on November 5th and 6th, included a representative sample of 502 respondents and had a margin of error of 4.04%.
Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Angus MacSwan
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