Poll: 77% of Israeli Arabs would rather live in Israel than in any other country in the world

[oberliner]

A recent opinion poll conducted by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government found that 77 percent of Israeli Arabs would rather live in Israel than in any other country in the world.

The survey of 1,721 Israelis, both Arab and Jewish, also showed that 73 percent of the Jews and 94 percent of the Arabs want Israel to "be a society in which Arab and Jewish citizens have mutual respect and equal opportunities."

The Kennedy School said in a statement that the poll produced a number of results it termed surprising, pointing to a higher level of co-existence than might have been anticipated.

The research comes at a period of simmering tensions in some sectors of the Arab-Jewish divide within Israel.

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/995466.html

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. I'm not surprised. Did you think Israeli Arabs are generally peaceful

because it's a police state? Israel ain't perfect, but it's a rough 'hood.

[old mark]

2. The arabs that were fooled by arab propaganda

into becoming "refugees", and are still unassimilated into their "host" countries are the ones that are angry and have nothing. Arabs who stayed in Israel may have had some tough times, but they ae better off than those living in neighboring countries.

mark

[madrchsod]

3. well it used to be their "country" before the zionists

decided to "cleanse" the land

[Behind the Aegis]

4. What a load of crap.

[pelsar]

6. hmm....

seems that with the israeli arabs who decided that they preferred to stay (poor cleansing ability on the part of the zionists), its becoming a bit clearer that attacking and trying to cleanse the land of the unarmed jews was probably a bad idea......(1920s)

of course what do those arab israelis know?....i mean they just live in israel, they probably dont know anything about "progressive" ideals and how they 've been screwed....somebody should teach them and explain to them just how miserable their lives are because of the "zionists" (though given their high degree of education, awareness of the world around them (including relatives in the camps and abroad) i doubt many will buy what the "progressives are selling"...they're smarter than that.

[Shaktimaan]

7. Jesus.

Let me guess... You don't need to read a book to learn what happened. You already "know" what happened, everybody does.

Just for kicks though let's see if you can answer this question. No pressure. What Middle Eastern country has engaged in ethnic cleansing more successfully (completely) than Israel?

[Vegasaurus]

5. Why not?

Palestninans in Arab countries are kept in squalid refugee camps and not allowed to work.

Of course they choose Israel, where the standard of living and human rights conditions are far, far superior.

[Violet_Crumble]

8. What a load of crap...

Like most other people, Israeli-Arabs didn't get to choose what country they were born in. You make out like they have a choice between living in Israel and living in a refugee camp (btw, Palestinians in Jordan are NOT kept in refugee camps and not allowed to work) and they wouldn't feel any patriotism towards their own country. Most people do prefer to live in their own country than any other, unless there's severe unrest that causes them to flee and seek asylum elsewhere. Here's an example of how ridiculous yr comment is: the standard of living here is superior to that of Israel, and Switzerland's is higher than here. But that's not a defining factor in why people want to live in their own country rather than anywhere else and I very much doubt that the Israelis in this forum think of where they live as a choice between here and there based on the standard of living. And there's no way in hell I'd want to live in Switzerland. Israeli-Arabs are no different. They want to keep on living in their country (and Israel is every bit as much their country as it is for any other Israeli) because it's where they were born and it's what their familiar with and they form an attachment to living there...

[shira]

10. would you rather live in a freeper extremist society or a modern liberal democracy?

That's the real question.

I've lived in the USA all my life, but if it were controlled by religiously intolerant freepers who execute and abuse gays and women, and who try brainwashing my kids to hate other people, I don't care if I've lived here all my life. I'll jump on the next bus to a modern liberal democracy with just the clothes on my back rather than live in fear for myself and my kids.

[Vegasaurus]

11. The Israeli Arabs already live in that modern democracy

and aren't willing to trade it for the dark ages of theocracy, covered and stoned women, murdered gay people, and a poor standard of living.

[Violet_Crumble]

12. No, that wasn't the question....

Because that society you described isn't Palestinian society. And it doesn't describe Israeli society either, and seeing the article was about Israeli citizens living in Israel who wouldn't want to live anywhere else, I'm wondering why you even brought that up...

[shira]

13. here's why....

I recall a recent poll in which arabs were asked their preference where to live should Israel consider making some Israeli arab villages a part of a future Palestinian state. Most preferred to remain part of Israel, not part of a future Palestinian state. This current poll supports the fact that most Arab Israelis do not want any part of living in a freeper-led Palestinian state.

[Violet_Crumble]

14. I didn't realise the folk at Free Republic had been invited to lead a future Palestinian state...

That's what I like about this place. I get to learn something new every day! Personally, I don't get why anyone would invite a bunch of drooling and knuckledragging US Republicans to lead their state, and I think the freepers are better suited to hanging out at their poorly designed website and leaving the whole running a state thing to the experts. I dunno, did I get the definition of *freeper* wrong? Like, I've only been at DU a few years so I might not have the right definition for what a freeper is...


I don't get why it's so hard to acknowledge that Israeli-Arabs might prefer to live in Israel for the simple reason that it's their home.

[shira]

15. free republic?

What does Free Republic have to do with any of this?

Likewise, I don't get why it's so hard to acknowledge that Israeli-Arabs prefer living in Israel, led by the Israeli government with all its faults and warts, rather than live in constant fear within Palestine, led by Hamas or any secular and corrupt terror organization.

[LeftishBrit]

9. Encouraging in many ways!

'73 percent of the Jews and 94 percent of the Arabs want Israel to "be a society in which Arab and Jewish citizens have mutual respect and equal opportunities." '

Great! I hope one day it will be 100% of both Jews and Arabs.