A recent Statnet Research Institute poll reported by the Jerusalem Post shows that 77% of Israeli Arabs prefer to live under Israeli rule than to be governed by Palestinians.
Of the Arabs who responded that they prefer to live under Israeli rule, 70% were Druse. In terms of religious affiliation, 57% were Christian, and 49% were Muslim.
Of the Arabs who preferred to live under the Palestinian Authority, only 2% were Druse, and only 5% were Christian.
The survey was conducted by phone interviews through Sunday of 405 Israeli Arab citizens nationwide, not including east Jerusalem. The poll, which was conducted in Arabic, was commissioned by Israel’s Channel 10.
Other results from the poll indicate that 68% of Israeli Arabs oppose the recent wave of terrorist attacks in and around Jerusalem, although 81% do believe Israel is trying to harm the Temple Mount status quo, a claim which Israel says has been used by Palestinian leaders to incite violence.
Eighty-Eight percent of Druse respondents expressed opposition to the terror attacks, as did 80% of Christians and 64% of Muslims. Only 16% expressed opposition the condemnations of the attacks by some Arab MKs.
The poll also surveyed Arab feelings of discrimination in Israel. A 58% majority felt they suffered from light or moderate racism, while 42% responded that they suffer from strong racism. Sixty-one percent feel that they are treated equally or semi-equally by the state, while 39% did not feel that they received equal treatment from the state.
The results were reasonably consistent with the annual Index of Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel, the annual survey conducted by sociologist Professor Sammy Smooha from the University of Haifa. In that survey, the results of which were last reported in the fall of 2013, 63.5% of Arabs said Israel is a good place to live.
Only 20.9% of respondents to that survey said they were willing to move to a Palestinian state.
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