Most Israelis don’t see sovereignty happening - poll
Survey says Israelis see US President Donald Trump more pro-Israel than Joe Biden.
By GIL HOFFMANIsraelis protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem, July 3, 2020(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH 90)
Fifty-five percent of the public see only a low chance that a move to apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria will be made in the coming year, according to a poll published on Monday by the Israeli Democracy Institute.Only 27% of citizens see the chances of it happening as high, and 18% do not know or refused to answer, according to the poll of 609 respondents representing a sample of the population, which was conducted June 28 to 30, and had a maximum sampling error of 3.7%.A quarter of Israelis back applying sovereignty to all of Judea and Samaria, 14% support only applying sovereignty to large settlement blocs and 8% only to the Jordan Valley. Another quarter of Israelis, including half the Arab respondents, oppose applying sovereignty to any part of the territories. The rest said they did not know enough about the yet unpublished plan and declined to answer.Among respondents who were in favor of applying sovereignty, 38% said they would change their mind if it was predicated on agreeing to the establishment of a Palestinian state. Half the pro-sovereignty respondents would still be in favor, and the rest did not know or refused to respond.The poll asked which candidate for US president would be better for Israel’s interests. Among Jews, 60.2% said incumbent Donald Trump, 14.4% presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden and 25.4% declined to answer or said they did not know. Among Arabs, 33.9% said Trump, 25% Biden and 41.1% did not know or did not answer.Asked if the Black Lives Matter protest movement is justified, 54% said yes, 20% said no and the rest did not know or declined to respond.While 55% of the public was optimistic about Israel’s security situation, the poll found 60% are worried about the economic situation.The public gave poor grades to the government on its handling of the coronavirus. On a scale of 1 to 10, 34% gave it negative grades of 1 to 4, 45% average grades of 5 to 7 and 20% gave it positive grades of 8 to 10. One percent did not answer.
