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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eashoa' M'sheekha who wrote (48739)	10/1/2002 10:34:37 PM
From: Eashoa' M'sheekha	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Survey: 80% of Israeli Arabs want violence to end -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- David Rudge Oct. 1, 2002 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More than three-quarters of Israeli Arabs living in the Triangle want the violence of the intifada come to an end, a recent survey has shown. Only 15 percent of respondents from the region, considered a stronghold of the fundamentalist Islamic Movement, felt that the intifada should continue. The survey was carried out to assess attitudes of Israeli Arabs on the second anniversary of the outbreak of the intifada and of the October 2000 riots in which 13 Arabs and a Jew were killed. The survey was conducted between September 10 and 12 by the Nazareth-based Yafa Research Institute on behalf of the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace at Givat Haviva. The findings were announced at a press conference in Nazareth yesterday. "The high proportion of those in favor of an end to the intifada, or that it become non-violent, highlights the gap between the way the Jewish public views Israeli Arabs and how they are portrayed in the media and their actual attitudes, which are more moderate, realistic, and pragmatic," center director Dr. Sarah Ozacky-Lazar said. "It is also important to note the high percentage [70%] of the younger people [18-24], who are normally considered to be more radical than the older population, who would like to see the intifada come to an end," she said. The survey was conducted by telephone in Arabic among 509 men and women, primarily between 18 and 65, from the Triangle, including residents of Umm el-Fahm. The margin of error was put at 4%. Some 68% of the respondents rejected proposals to annex their communities to a future Palestinian state. Only 18% said this was acceptable and that they would be prepared to relinquish their Israeli citizenship, compared to 30% in a similar survey 18 months ago. Of those who said they favor of living under Palestinian rule, 44% said their main reason was because they viewed themselves as Palestinians, while 38% said it was due to "the existence of manifestations of racism against Arabs in Israel." The explanations of those opposed to the proposal were that they had "become used to living in Israel" (37%) or that this would mean ceding "the homeland" (27.7%), while 16.7% said the economic situation in Israel is better. Ozacky-Lazar said the findings indicate that a growing number of Israeli Arabs feel the establishment is waging a campaign of delegitimization against them and their leadership. "This includes talk of transfer, of revoking citizenship, of work for Jews only, of the possibility of outlawing the northern faction of the Islamic Movement and the Balad Party of MK Azmi Bishara and talk of launching an investigation into the Adallah legal aid organization," she said. The survey found that more than 70% of the respondents said they would be willing to participate in joint social, economic, and political activities as a means of improving relations Jews and Arabs. "This is in sharp contrast to the impression held by the Jewish public that the Arabs favor separation, autonomy, and the establishment of their own institutions," Ozacky-Lazar said. One of the predictable findings of the survey was the vote of no confidence in the current government's attitude toward the Israeli Arab community, with three-quarters describing it as bad to very bad.