Poll: Most Israelis object to withdrawing to pre-1967 borders

More than 50% oppose peace agreement that involves withdrawal to Green Line, even with landswaps; 65.6% doubt peace deal with Palestinians can be achieved

Reuters|Published: 08.06.13 , 17:09

Most Israelis would oppose any peace deal with the Palestinians that involved withdrawing to pre-1967 ceasefire lines, even if landswaps were agreed to accommodate Jewish settlements, a poll showed on Tuesday.

The survey by the liberal Israeli Democracy Institute (IDI) showed 65.6% of those questioned did not expect to see a deal in talks between Israel and the Palestinians within a year.

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The talks resumed last month after a three-year hiatus. US Secretary of State John Kerry has said he hopes a peace agreement that has eluded the parties for decades can be achieved within nine months.

But even if the Israeli government managed to defy skeptics and secure an accord, the poll, jointly sponsored by Tel Aviv University, suggested it would struggle to sell it to its people.

Of the 602 people questioned, 55.5% said they were against Israel agreeing to the 1967 lines, even if there were landswaps which would enable some Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to remain part of Israel.

Among Israel's majority Jewish population, opposition to such an agreement was 63%, while among Israeli Arabs, a minority group, only 15% objected to such a deal.

The issue, which refers to the lines that existed before the Six Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors, is considered key to sealing any deal.

Some 67% of all Israelis said they would also oppose Palestinian demands for a return of even a small number of refugees who either fled or were driven away when Israel was created in 1948. They were also against compensating the refugees or their descendents financially.

On one of the other issues facing negotiators, the question of whether Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem should become part of a Palestinian state, some 50% of Israeli Jews said they were against the idea.

Only 55% of Israeli Arabs were in favor, fewer than might be expected, suggesting Arab residents of east Jerusalem did not want to lose advantages of living under Israeli government control, such as health

and national insurance benefits, the IDI said.

After an opening round of talks in Washington a week ago, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have agreed to meet again during the second week of August.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is also facing an uphill task trying to sell the talks to his people, even within his Palestine Liberation Organization – an umbrella body that includes many leading political factions.

In a statement on Tuesday, two groups – the Popular and the Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine – called for the talks to be suspended, denouncing them as "a repetition of pointless and harmful negotiations" held since the early 1990s.