clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

80% of Israelis support settlement expansion in the West Bank

February 15, 2014 at 1:28 pm

On Monday The Times of Israel newspaper published the results of a poll conducted by Ariel University, revealing “the overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews support Israel extending its sovereignty over some or all of the West Bank, either unilaterally or as part of an agreement.”

The poll also found that 35% of respondents support the annexation of the entire West Bank under the control of the Israeli government, whilst 24% said that only settlement blocs should be annexed. Twenty percent said that any annexation should be part of an agreement with the Palestinians, while 12% believed that Israel does not need to annex any land to its territory. Only 9% had no answer to the question.


According to the total percentage of the respondents who supported expansion in the West Bank, about 80% of Israelis support the expansion of Israeli sovereignty over the territory of the West Bank.

On his part, the director of the Peace Now Movement, Yariv Oppenheimer, told the Times of Israel that he is sceptical of the poll’s findings saying that Israeli public opinion “is much more to the left than in the past,” as demonstrated in January’s elections. He also accused Ariel University of being a “totally political institute.”