Middle East Monitor / May 19, 2022
A recent poll conducted by research group Israeli Congress, which studies Israeli society, has found that mistrust and hostility between Palestinians and Jews in Israel is increasing, The Jerusalem Post has reported.
The poll was conducted on the first anniversary of the Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip that killed more than 260 Palestinians, including 41 women, 60 children and 16 elderly people. It found that 49 per cent of Jews and 43 per cent of Palestinians do not believe that they can live together in mixed cities.
Mistrust between populations is reflected in routine day-to-day activities, the poll found, as 34 per cent of Jews and 55 per cent of Palestinians testified that they had changed their lifestyle in some way since the clashes in mixed cities during last year’s Israeli offensive on Gaza.
About 40 per cent of Palestinians feel hostility from Jewish Israelis on public transport, in places of entertainment and when shopping, as well as in government offices. Around 38 per cent are afraid to express their opinions in public, while 48 per cent feel the same reluctance in the workplace.
“The events of May 2021 left a deep imprint on the Palestinian and Jewish public, and increased the fears and hostility between the populations even more in the cities involved,” said the Director General of the Israeli Congress, Dr Adv Gilad Weiner.
