60% of Israeli Arabs say: Don't punish students who support Hamas

Half a year after the Hamas massacre of October 7, the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) published a survey showing that Israeli Arabs overwhelmingly reject Hamas, support international rule led by Arab countries in Gaza the day after the war, and simultaneously support the immigration of their next generation outside Israel's borders.

According to the research findings, in the face of possible arrangements in Gaza "the day after" the war, 30% of Israeli Arabs prefer the rule of an international force of Arab countries in Gaza the day after the war, compared to 24% who prefer the Palestinian Authority, 19% (nearly all Christian and Druze respondents, as opposed to Muslim respondents) would like Israel to rule the Gaza Strip. Only 4% want to see continued Hamas rule.

The majority of Israeli Arabs do not sympathize with Hamas, their response to the war varies between sadness, concern, and fear. 37% of Israeli Arabs say that they feel sadness, 27% feel worried and 20% of Israeli Arabs feel a sense of fear.

40% of Arabs believe that Jewish-Arab relations will be worse after the war. 10% believe that relations between Jews and Israeli Arabs will improve, and 40% believe that there will be no change.

In a JPPI survey published last month, 27% of Israeli Arabs responded that if they were given the opportunity to emigrate, they would choose to do so.

This survey examined where they think their children/grandchildren should live.

About 35% of Israeli Westerners prefer their children or grandchildren to live outside Israel's borders. 25% of them would prefer that their children live in Europe or the United States, while 10% would prefer that their children live in another Arab country or in a Palestinian state. Only about half of the respondents (53%) said that in their eyes Israel is the place where their children/grandchildren should live.

The survey also found that a very large percentage of Israeli Arabs deny the fact that the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif) has a Jewish history. 50% of them say that there was no Jewish temple there, and only 11% say that there was (the rest "don't know").

Accordingly, 55% of Israeli Arabs (63% of Muslims) believe that the State of Israel should prohibit Jews from ascending the Temple Mount, and only 10% of them believe that Jews should be allowed to visit the mountain to visit and pray.

55% (64% of Muslims) - believe that Israel's goal is to "keep Muslims away from the Haram al-Sharif". Only a fifth (21%) believe that Israel is interested in allowing complete freedom of worship for Muslims on the mount.

60% believe that no action should be taken against students who express controversial positions such as support for Hamas beyond requesting they delete the messages.

However, about a third believe that Jewish students who call for encouraging Arab immigration from Israel should be expelled from their schools.

A slightly lower proportion believe that a Jewish student who expresses support for the killing of innocents in Gaza should be expelled, and about a quarter believe that students who express support for Hamas or the Hamas attack on Israel should be expelled from their studies.

Prof. Yedidia Stern, president of the Jewish People's Policy Institute, said that "the findings of the survey place responsibility on the Jewish majority to act to strengthen coexistence between the two populations of Israeli citizens."