Teens against army service
Photo: Ofer Amram
Protest in Amona evacuation
Photo: Reuters
Fifth of Israelis say violent protest okay
War and Peace Index for November reveals vast majority of Jewish Israeli public opposes soldiers' insubordination, but 17.5% say forceful resistance acceptable if citizens feel government's policies harm national interest
In the same month where construction was frozen in settlements and calls for insubordination among soldiers from the Hesder Yeshivas increased, a significant rise was noted in the number of Israelis, both from the Right and the Left, who believe physical protest in extreme cases is legitimate.
According to the War and Peace Index for November, composed by professors Ephraim Yaar and Tamar Herman, 17.5% of the Israeli public believes that when citizens feel the government's policies seriously hurt Israel's national interest or, alternately, the Palestinians' basic rights, it is okay to take measures such as forceful resistance to settlement evacuation or the construction of the separation fence.
Survey
According to War and Peace Index survey, 93.5% of Jewish-Israelis who are familiar with Gaza war report's conclusion believe it is biased against Israeli army; only 5% of Arab public opposes report's claim that IDF committed war crimes in Gaza. Most Israeli Jews believe continued building in settlements does not reduce chances of reaching two-state solution
The numbers published in Sunday's report show that the number of Israelis who support violent protests has doubled compared to previous studies from the 1990s and the start of the decade.
According to the pole's composers, this means that almost one million people from the Jewish population in Israel aged 19 and up, currently support the right to take violent measures against the government's policies if the policies are in contrast to their views on peace and security.
"This is clearly a red flag for the rule of law and a danger sign for the stability of Israeli democracy," the study's composers wrote.
Insubordination: Off limits
Despite the disturbing findings, the study also showed that the majority of the Jewish-Israeli public opposes insubordination among IDF soldiers. Out of the respondents, 77% deny the right of left-wing soldiers to refuse to serve in the territories due to their objection to occupation, and 63% deny the right of right-wing soldiers to refuse to take part in evacuating Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
The study further showed that, today, as in the past, the number of respondents opposed to leftist disobedience is higher than the rate of those who oppose to right-wing disobedience.
A surprising figure arising from the study showed that of those who support leftists' right not to serve in the territories, 32% are ultra-Orthodox and 31% are religious, while only 20% of them are traditional and 12% are secular.
According to the study's composers, the explanation for this seemingly curious finding may lie in findings about the support for the right of right-wing soldiers to refuse to take part in evacuating settlements.
Here the rates of support stand at 66% among the haredim, 50% among the religious, 25% among the traditional, and 12% among the secular. It seems, then, that part of the haredi and religious public shows “understanding” for left-wing soldiers’ right of refusal as a way of justifying right-wing soldiers’ right to refuse to take part in dismantling settlements.
Segmentation of the views on insubordination by age groups shows that the support for refusal is highest among the youngest interviewees (aged 19-24). This could probably be explained by the closeness in age between the interviewees and the disobedient soldiers.
The authors said, "The fact that those now entering the age of political influence feel less obligated to the rule of law could be a phenomenon with significant implications for the future of Israeli democracy."
On the question of who religious soldiers should obey if there is a contradiction between the army’s orders and the rabbinical ruling on the issue of evacuating settlements, the vast majority – 75.5% believe a soldier should obey the army's orders, while only 15.5% say soldiers should obey the rabbis' rulings.
As expected, almost all those who believe soldiers should act in line with the rabbinical ruling come from the voters for the haredi and religious parties.
Don't want foreign intervention
The survey also examined a recent controversy over whether European officials were donating funds to human rights organizations in a bid to increase their criticism of Israel.
The data shows that 59% of those polled object to donations from abroad, while 28% were in favor. A majority of 55% said they didn't believe there was a difference between donations from Jewish organizations and non-Jewish ones.
However the Israeli public is divided on the question of whether there is a difference between organizations regarded as "official" such as the EU or foreign governments, and non-official organizations such as private donors.
The poll shows that 43% believe the difference is significant, while 44% do not. Among those who regard the difference as significant, 51% say unofficial donations should be outlawed while 37% would oppose such a law.
The War and Peace Index is funded by the Evans Program for Conflict Resolution Research of Tel Aviv University. The telephone interviews were conducted by the B. I. Cohen Institute of Tel Aviv University on 8-9 December 2009, and included 512 interviewees who represent the adult population of Israel (including the territories and the kibbutzim). The sampling error for a sample of this size is 4.5%.
