Recent polls show preference for Israeli citizenship by East Jerusalem’s Arab population

A majority of Palestinians living in Jerusalem would welcome Israeli citizenship, according to a recent poll conducted by a Palestinian research institute. Over half of the 504 respondents, 52 percent, said they would prefer “Israeli citizenship with equal rights,” while only 42 percent said they would choose to be Palestinian citizens if and when a Palestinian state were established. This figure marks a sharp increase in the Palestinian interest in Israeli citizenship. A similar poll from 2010 showed one-third of Jerusalem’s Arabs preferring Israeli citizenship over Palestinian rule.

In previous polls, Palestinians gave a variety of reasons for favoring Israeli citizenship, Israel’s Channel 2 reported, such as better employment options, medical services and health-related benefits. A significant 47 percent said they would prefer to be employed at an Israeli workplace, even if it required a change in their lifestyle. A majority – 62 percent – of Jerusalem Palestinians has come to terms with the fact that Israel will continue to exist in the coming decades, which is a higher rate than among Palestinians in Gaza (42 percent) or in Judea and Samaria (47 percent).

Almost 40 percent acknowledged that the Jews “have rights to the land, together with Palestinians.” A  poll conducted in January showed that Arabs who already have Israeli citizenship view it as a source of pride. Another poll commissioned by Channel 10 in late 2014 showed that the vast majority of Arabs living in Israel, including Judea and Samaria, would much rather live under Israeli administration than under the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Anyone living in Israel would not be surprised by these findings, as it is well known that Arabs, as well as Jews, enjoy a high standard of living in the only free country in the Middle East. Arabs are employed by and receive service at all government offices. They study at all universities, including Ariel University in Samaria, and serve as judges, IDF officers and parliamentarians. Accusations of apartheid leveled against Israel are false and baseless.

This information is substantiated in my recent book on Modern Hebrew published last year before these polls were taken. See Modern Hebrew – The Past and Future of a Revitalized Language.

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3 Responses

  1. I don’t care whether these arabs are responding to these surveys in a truthful manner, or even whether they have actual goodness in their hearts. I just think it’s madness to expand the number of arab muslims with Israeli citizenship. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but some day they will hear the call of the ummah. Where will their sympathies and loyalties lie then?

  2. Caroline Glick laid all this out in her recent (2014) book, “The Israeli Solution” where she argues for a one state solution to include all Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria Arabs and exclude all Muslims in the Gaza Strip.

    Nothing to worry about here as the 52% will stay and become citizens and the 48% will go to Gaza, Jordan or another Arab country. Read her book especially her chapters on demography. It’s much better than you think.

  3. Hello i am a newspaper subeditor in south Africa and ive long had a whiff of the left, coalescing since reading Rene Girard’s statement that if Christ represents the call to charity then charity coming from a place of ego is the anti christ. Recent events like a photo of a husky puppy in the telegraph coming with the men from Arabia have led me on a journey and while I respect pamela grillers bravery and Robert Spencer’s knowledge, until he referenceda report in the telegraph by some climate change denier, whose rport i rememeber, whipping up a storm over supposedly false climate data. Besides striking a that the man was also thus vulnerablw to groupthink of his own i must say it seems foolish. If america could gain the levels of renewables of say denmark thwy would be no need for saudi arabia now would there. the thing is that years back I had a similar ephiphany with regards to the business media abiut a decade ago when i realised the journos were brainwashed. This was shown clearly by those guys defending the Lehman ceo in the face of his damning emails. So the left does not have a monopoly on the crazed stuff you see on the right and as someone who supports regulation of wall street and is tired of republican presents ruining the US job market and growing inequality when basic steps can prevent it AND who recognises the urgent need to push back the Islamic threat and in fact destroy every single mosque on the planet I don’t seem to have any friends at all.

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