Peoples of Israel Blog Post #1 - Do all Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs hate each other, and does each group hope that the other would utterly depart from the State of Israel?

            As of 2013, the Israeli population is composed of approximately 75% Israeli Jews whileIsraeli Arabs consist of about 21% of the population, and 4% as “other.”  As the million-dollar question of what to do about Israel and Palestinians comes up in any conversation, it is nearly always assumed that Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs are mortal enemies. Their religious and ideological differences are too strong, and their politics too polarizing, and their historical hostilities towards one another run too deep to work together on issues, nonetheless become friends. All Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs do not hate each other. It would be impossible to state that all group of x category hates everyone from y category, and vice versa.

The Israelis: Ordinary People in An Extraordinary Land by: Donna Rosenthal 

In cities like Haifa exist an island of sanity from the hatred of politics and moral questions surrounding the peoples of Israel. In The Israelis: Ordinarypeople in an Extraordinary Land we see this in Yasser Mansour, an Arab Muslim who is a pediatric pulmonologist and resident of Haifa. (Rosenthal 247) Mansour agrees that there are several types of Arabs and Jews exist though, and they do not all want Arabs expelled, nor do all Arabs want Jews to depart. He describes it as a city where the children do not judge each other by their names and their religions are not relevant especially when they play together. (Rosenthal 248) He also adds that he typically knows more about Judaism and their cultural practices that some secular Jews because of his exposure to them. (Rosenthal 251) The Arab Muslim living in Haifa also agrees that in the Book of Genesis and in the Koran, Jews and Arabs are both children of Abraham or Ibrahim, and recent discoveries also support this within genetics. Unfortunately, after terrorist attacks, hostilities between the two are heightened around Israel, resulting in the beatings of innocent Aras Mansour and his wife, Jumana feel more like a citizen of the calm Haifa, rather than a citizen of Israel. Never though, do these people hate Jews for hostilities that Arabs face in Israel, nor do they wish they would utterly depart. Haifa is a unique city where the coexistence between the religions is a good representative of what the surrounding nation could be. In the polarized nation that is Israel, Haifa is a sanctuary for the coexistence between Arabs and Jews, from different cultures and languages. 

Pew Research Center poll showing majority of Haredim, Datiim agree Arabs should be expelled

            In March of 2016, the Pew Research Center published a survey discussing the religious divisions in Israel. Nearly 81% were Jewish Israelis while non-Jewish populations were 19%, Muslims 14% of the total population surveyed. It would be hard to argue that all Jews hate Muslims and that all Muslims hate Jews because in Israel (like many other places in the world) exists more than one kind of Jew, and one kind of Muslim. According to the survey from October 2014 – May 2015, there are several subgroups within Israeli society that all fall under Judaism. For example, Hiloni (secular) were 40% of Israeli adults, 23% Masorti (traditional) 23%, Datl (religious), and Haredi (ultra-Orthodox). Because these subgroups exist, and their degree of religious belief various from secular to ultra-orthodox, they are not be in agreement on political, moral, or even religious issues. For instance, Haredi 59% and Dati 71%, in comparison to Masorti 54% and Hiloni          36%, believe that Arabs should be expelled or transferred from Israel. This survey concludes that roughly half of Israeli Jews agree that Arabs should be expelled while a little less than half disagree that they should be. In sum, Israeli Jews are divided on whether Arabs should be expelled from Israel, also suggesting that they are all not in agreement whether the other group hates each other and would wish Israeli-Arabs would utterly depart from the state of Israel.

         Similarly, the poll conducted by the Pew Research Center is from a well-respected nonpartisan American organization. For the survey on the belief of Arab expulsion it was conducted over 8 months from 2014 to 2015. Because of its connection to American society there could be a potential bias but it is likely that the polls were as accurate as they can be, with a low margin of error. Unfortunately, I could not find a number on how many people were polled for this survey, nor did they include any subgroups besides political ideology (i.e. right, center, left) on all Jews, not within the various denominations within Judaism.

972 Magazine Survey: Responses to "How do Jews and Arabs get along in Israel?

             As the media publishes and produces articles depicting the “hatred,” acts violence, and often anti-Semitic and Islamophobic rhetoric spewed at one another, there is another side of the media outlet that does not publish the coexistence between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. Why not? Well simply, it does not grab the attention of international readers, and headlines reading “Jews and Arabs in Israel Get Along Just Fine” does nothing to grab attention of subscribers or readers. According to the poll conducted by Local Call/New Wave Research under the supervision of Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin and David Reis, 53% of Jewish Israeli respondents reported that their relations between Jews and Arabs are generally positive. Most of these responses were based of personal experience in their contact with Arab Israelis. Realistically, only one third of the Jewish respondents to the survey reported having negative relations with Arab Israeli based off personal experience. Similarly, of the Israeli Arabs respondents, 76% reported to have “usually positive” relation with the relations to Israeli Jews, in contrast to the 18% of Arab respondents reported “usually negative.” This poll was conducted over a 2 month period from 414 Arabs and 411 Jewish citizens of Israel. I do believe that this poll is a good indicator of the lack of “hatred” or their desire to have the other depart based off the reported relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel. It is also likely that because of these positive relations reported between the groups, that these relations could only help improve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

              It can be argued that the 972.mag research poll posted in April of 2019 only sampled about 800 people regarding negative/positive opinions is likely too small of a sample size to represent the entire population of Arab-Israelis citizens and Israeli-Jews citizens. On the other hand, the poll is one of the more recent polls conducted which is a good sign that is reflective of current political situations. Their margin of error is also only 3.5% though the +972 magazine is left-wing Israeli news, which can contribute to the polls and articles biases.

On the other hand, there are some pros for politicians and newspaper companies that depend on the polarization and division in Israel between Jews and Arabs. Politicians benefit off of the religious divisions that promote hostilities because they can get people to vote for them while having something to campaign on. Similarly, newspaper reports or organizations also gain subscribers and consumers by publishing or writing articles on controversial topics like the hatred and violence between Arabs in Jews because it is exciting and sparks conversations.