New poll finds fresh evidence of anti-Arab racism among Israeli Jews

A new poll published yesterday has provided fresh evidence of anti-Arab racism amongst Israeli Jews.

Conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute for Channel 10, the poll was conceived of “as a follow-up to a CNN poll last month that revealed high levels of anti-Semitism in Europe”.

One conclusion of the poll was that “the more religious the respondent, the more likely they were to reject the non-Jewish minority”.

According to reports, 52 per cent of respondents “said they agreed to some extent with the statement: ‘Most Jews are better than most non-Jews because they were born Jews’”. Another 17 per cent said this statement was not “totally true” and 20 per cent “rejected it completely”.

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Among the majority who supported the statement, two-thirds “identified as ultra-Orthodox”, 45 per cent “identified as religious Zionists”, 13 per cent “identified as traditionally observant” and 7.1 per cent “identified as secular”.

Other findings of the poll included that 37 per cent of Israeli Jews said they were either “somewhat disturbed” or “very disturbed” by the fact that half the pharmacists in Israel are Palestinian citizens.

In addition, 74 per cent of respondents “said they get at least a little disturbed by hearing conversation in Arabic in public”.

Meanwhile, 88 per cent of respondents “said they would be disturbed to some degree if their son were to befriend an Arab girl”, and 90 per cent of respondents said they would be disturbed if their daughter were to befriend an Arab boy.