Ahead of the 2023 Givat Haviva Conference for a Shared Society, a joint survey was conducted for Givat Haviva and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung under the supervision of Dr. Nohad Ali from the Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy Research at the Technion and a lecturer at the Western Galilee Academic College among interviewees from the Jewish and Arab communities. The goal of the survey was to get an up-to-date picture of the situation regarding the positions of the two communities regarding each other and to identify trends that may indicate the development of a shared society in Israel.
The survey was conducted by telephone among 600 Jewish interviewees (May 8-10, 2023, sampling error: ±4.0%) and 501 Arab interviewees (May 14-18, 2023, sampling error: ±4.4%). It should be noted that telephone surveys are less accepted in Arab society, which may lead to certain inaccuracies in the results.
The questions of the 2023 survey were derived from a series of questions from the “Index of Jewish-Arab Relations” by Prof. Sami Samuha and Dr. Nohad Ali in order to allow comparison with previous years. However, since the surveys in previous years among Arab respondents were carried out in face-to-face interviews and not over the phone, the 2023 data can only indicate trends. The Jewish survey was carried out by the Smith Consulting, while in the Arab society by the Yafa Institute.
Key results
- The events of May 2021 left a mark on Jewish and Arab relations in Israel, but did not break the foundations, and a relatively rapid recovery trend is evident among both populations. This is in contrast to the events of October 2000, which led to a deep rift and took almost a decade to recover. The trend is more optimistic among the Arab public than among the Jewish public.
- The participation of Arab parties in government coalitions is seen as more positive in the eyes of the Arab public than the Jewish public. However, in both populations the trend of support for political participation of Arab parties in decision-making is on the rise.
- The willingness of the Arab public to integrate into educational, employment and recreation frameworks in Jewish society is on the rise, compared to a fairly static situation among Jews regarding the willingness to integrate the Arab citizens.
- A large majority of Arab society want to integrate into Israeli society, while only half of the Jewish population think this is true.
- Crime and violence in Arab society are seen in both societies as a serious problem. 72.2% of the Arab society and 52% of the Jewish society see crime and violence in the Arab society as a factor that alienates them from the state.