The Israeli public is widely pessimistic over how the government handled the Disengagement from Gaza (Gush Katif) in 2005, according to a survey published Thursday - and the majority of right-wing voters support using nearly any means necessary to resist any similar measures.
46% of voters who identified as "right wing" during the 20th Knesset elections supported using illegal means to resist being evicted from their homes, according to the Israeli Democracy Institute (IDI)'s Guttman Institute survey published in Maariv. 17% supported using violence.
Of those who supported resistance, 66% were Shas voters, 58% were Jewish Home voters, 52% were United Torah Judaism voters, and 43% were Likud voters.
Younger Israelis were more likely to perceive the Disengagement as a massive failure on the part of the Israeli government and other institutions; some 83% of respondents between the ages of 18-24 held this view, vs. 74% of respondents ages 25-34. In the over-35 age set, just 51%-60% considered the Disengagement to be exemplary of a systemic governmental failure.
The government also failed miserably to help Gush Katif refugees, according to most of the respondents. 48.7% said that the government's treatment of the evacuees was "not good at all," and 32% said it was "not so good." Just 11% insisted the government treated evacuees "well" or "very well."
Respondents were split on public support for the evacuees during the Disengagement. 12% believed that the public attitude was "entirely unsupportive"; 28%, "unsupportive"; 32%, "supportive enough"; and 15%, "very supportive."
Religiously observant respondents were far more likely to feel that the press and public abandoned Gush Katif residents during the crisis, with 54% taking that view vs. just 35% of secular respondents.