Israeli Jews overwhelmingly support Elor Azariya, the soldier indicted for shooting a wounded Arab terrorist this March, and generally tend to favor a policy of killing terrorists on the spot, rather than taking them into custody.
The findings were revealed in a new Tel Aviv University/Israel Democracy Institute poll released Wednesday afternoon.
According to the survey, 64.8% of Israeli Jews said they justified or “very much justified” Azariya’s actions, compared to just 25.3% who said his actions were not justified. Ten percent had no opinion.
A narrow plurality of Israeli Jews also said they favored a general policy of killing terrorists at the scene of attacks, rather than making efforts to capture and prosecute them. Nearly half (46.8%) said they supported such a change, while 44.9% said that once a terrorist is no longer an immediate threat, he or she should be arrested.
A majority of Jews (51.5%) also endorsed the declaration by some reserve soldiers not to participate in reserve duty until Azariya is cleared of charges and freed, while 43.5% opposed the reservists’ refusal to serve.