Monday, April 7, 2008 62% of Jews suspect that Arab Israelis will revolt Arabs in Israel: 49% Israel has right to exist within '67 borders 71% prefer Israel over any other nation in the world

Press Release

April 7, 2008

Arab-Jewish relations index for 2007, which will be presented tomorrow at
the Haifa Conference for Social Responsibility at the University of Haifa:
62% of the Jewish public is wary of civil disobedience among the Arab
public; 64.6% avoid entering Arab towns in Israel
*A slight rise compared to last year in the majority of indices that measure
relations between Jews and Arabs*

62% of Jews suspect that Arab Israelis will begin a popular uprising and 64%
refrain from entering Arab towns in Israel - reports the Arab-Jewish
relations index for 2007, which will be presented tomorrow at the Haifa
Conference for Social Responsibility held at the University of Haifa. The
index also reveals that the Arab public has some suspicions of their own:
62% are suspicious of a transfer and 76% are suspicious of State-sponsored
violence.

From the index, complied by Prof. Sami Smooha - Dean of the Faculty of
Social Sciences at the University of Haifa and a 2008 Israel Prize Laureate
in Sociology, it was revealed that more than half of the Jewish public and
the Arab public think that relations between Jews and Arabs are not good and
they become even worse in the future.

In the study, presented for the second year at the Haifa Conference for
Social Responsibility, 699 Jewish civilians and 719 Arab citizens
representative of the country were asked their stance on a range of issues
relating to the Jewish-Arab rift.

Notwithstanding the suspicions of both sides; 86% of the Jewish population
and 75% of the Arab population believe that Israel is a good place to live;
85% amongst the Jewish public and 71% amongst the Arab public prefer Israel
over any other nation in the world. 58% amongst the Arab public believe that
Israel democratic for them too.

Also; 62% of the Jewish public believe that Arab citizens risk national
security by their high birth rate (compared to 64.4% last year); 80% are
suspicious of Arab Israeli support for the Palestinian national struggle
(compared to 83.1% last year). 80% of Arabs fear that their civil rights may
be harmed (compared to 77.4% last year) and 83% are worried about major land
expropriation (compared to 80% last year).

Furthermore, the percentage of Arabs who deny Israel's right to exist as a
Jewish-Zionist state rose slightly from 62.6% last year to 64% this year.
The percentage of Arab civilians who deny Israel's right to exist rose from
15% last year to 20% this year. Support for the use of violence to advance
the interests of the Arab minority rose from 9.5% to 10.8% this year. 18% of
the Jewish public denies the right of existence to the Arabs as a minority
in Israel compared to 16% last year.

Altogether, 48.3% of the Jewish public believe that they can't trust Arab
citizens; however, 60.2% of the Arab public believe that they can't trust
Jewish citizens; while 37% of the Jewish public supports encouraging Arabs
to leave Israel, one third support stripping the Arabs of their voting
rights.

The indices that measure the possibility of co-existence between the two
groups showed declines. Only 54% of the Jewish public feels that both sides
have historic rights to the Land compared to 68.5% last year. Also, support
for the two-state solution was down from 74% the previous year to 70% this
year.
Last year, 67.5% of the Arab public polled believed that Israel within the
borders of the Green Line has a right to exist as a Jewish and democratic
nation where Jews and Arabs can live side by side - compared to 49% this
year.

"The index exposes the dimensions of the deep rift between Arabs and Jews;
in order to narrow this divide, there is a need to settle the Palestinian
question and to find a balance between the Jewish and democratic characters
of the State. Nevertheless, looking at it in perspective and in comparison
to surveys conducted over the years, it is important to note that there isn't
a trend towards extremism in the attitudes of the Arab population or
entrenchment among the Jewish public," Prof. Smooha said.

The full results from the index will be presented at the Haifa Conference
for Social Responsibility held on April 8-9 at the University of Haifa on
the topic of "Whose responsibility is it?". The conference will discuss a
range of topics related to the links between the State, civilian society and
the private sector on all things related to social responsibility in Israel.
Participants in the conference include; the State Comptroller, Justice
Michah Lindenstrauss; High Court Judge, Justice Dalia Dorner (ret.);
Interior Minister, Meir Shetreet; MK, Amir Peretz; former General Manager of
the Finance Ministry and Chair of Governing Council, University of Haifa,
Dr. Yossi Bachar; Israel Prize Laureate, Dov Lautman; Minister for Welfare
and Social Services, Yitzhak Herzog; Menashe Samira, Director-General,
Second Television and Radio Broadcasting Authority; and more.

Amir Gilat, Ph.D.
Communication and Media Relations
University of Haifa
Tel: +972-4-8240098/2
Cell: +972-52-6178200
agilat@univ.haifa.ac.il