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Last update - 16:53 23/06/2008
Poll: 77% of Israeli Arabs would rather live in Israel than in any other country in the world
By Bradley Burston, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Harvard, Israeli Arabs, poll

A recent opinion poll conducted by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government found that 77 percent of Israeli Arabs would rather live in Israel than in any other country in the world.

The survey of 1,721 Israelis, both Arab and Jewish, also showed that 73 percent of the Jews and 94 percent of the Arabs want Israel to "be a society in which Arab and Jewish citizens have mutual respect and equal opportunities."

The Kennedy School said in a statement that the poll produced a number of results it termed surprising, pointing to a higher level of co-existence than might have been anticipated.
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The research comes at a period of simmering tensions in some sectors of the Arab-Jewish divide within Israel.

The release of the poll coincided with celebrations, accompanied by widespread Israeli Arab boycotts, of the 60th anniversary of the state's declaration of independence.

Israeli Arab MKs cited widespread discrimination as the cause of the boycotts. At the same time, MK Limor Livnat (Likud) proposed that the Knesset remove Arabic from its list of the country's official primary languages.

However, Professor Todd Pittinsky, research director of the Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership and lead researcher for the poll, said that the results pointed to a contrary phenomenon. Much media coverage focuses on the divisions between Jewish and Arab citizens in Israel, and not enough on the sincere and concerted efforts to coexist peacefully, Pittinsky said in a statement.

According to the poll, 68 percent of Jewish citizens support teaching conversational Arabic in Jewish schools to help bring Arab and Jewish citizens together.

The data also showded that more than two-thirds of Israeli Jews (69 percdent) said they believed that contributing to co-existence was a personal responsibility.

"Every day, innovative experiments in coexistence are going on," Pittinsky said.

"People on the ground in Israel are running community centers that enable cultural exchanges; in bilingual schools?like the Hand in Hand network of schools - young Jewish and Arab children become culturally conversant with each other. These deserve as much attention as rockets and roadblocks. They should be nurtured, studied, funded, and reported in the media. Ultimately the most successful efforts should be launched on a wider scale."

The study, conducted in Hebrew and Arabic with the assistance of University of Haifa researchers, was funded by the Alan B. Slifka foundation, which has sponsored a number of coexistence projects.

"This report supports what we have long suspected?unity among Israel?s Jewish and Arab communities is not only attainable, but there is great public support for it," philanthropist Slifka said.

"The critical next step is for Israeli policy makers to bring about the structural changes that the Jewish and Arab publics support, to reshape the educational, income, residential, and other divides that undermine national unity."

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      1.   Funny: And 65% of World Jewry would rather live elsewhere 17:07  |  American Jew 23/06/08
      2.   THIS IS NOT TRUE, ABSOLUTELY 17:13  |  indrajaya 23/06/08
      3.   What the racist Jewish state of apartheid? 17:22  |  Allon 23/06/08
      4.   #2 Indrajaya 17:24  |  Hassan 23/06/08
      5.   #1 - American Jew 17:25  |  Robert 23/06/08
      6.   Indrajaya - you are definitely not a believing Muslim 17:26  |  Allon 23/06/08
      7.   Indrajaya 17:38  |  Jabotinsky 23/06/08
      8.   Israel v Indonesia and Indrajaya 17:40  |  Jay A Friedman 23/06/08
      9.   Not really surprising 17:43  |  Israeli 23/06/08
      10.   #4 - Hassan 17:45  |  Eric 23/06/08
      11.   American Jew: I Love Living In Israel 17:46  |  ERSB 23/06/08
      12.   Indrajaya OPEN YOUR MIND! 17:50  |  Vadim 23/06/08
      13.   Indrajaya`s Spouting Hate Again 17:51  |  ERSB 23/06/08
      14.   DUH!! IT`S THEIR HOMELAND 17:54  |  Varrn 23/06/08
      15.   Indrajaya: you trust hate but not tolerance. Harvard needn`t lie 17:54  |  Alain 23/06/08
      16.   WHY BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA WAS WRONG ABOUT IRAQ FROM GET GO 18:02  |  Gary Schroeder 23/06/08
      17.   #13 ERSB 18:05  |  Hassan 23/06/08
      18.   These were their homes before Israel came 18:05  |  Natallie Durson 23/06/08
      19.   #2 indrayaja and other likes blow steem 18:07  |  TOMY 23/06/08
      20.   Israeli- What a great post 18:11  |  European 23/06/08
      21.   Of course they do!!!! 18:13  |  Ben Uziel 23/06/08
      22.   Iam surprised its only 77% 18:28  |  Refugee 23/06/08
      23.   # 2, FAKE INDRAJAYA 18:28  |  indrajaya 23/06/08
      24.   There goes down the drain the Fabricated Apartheid Epithets 18:29  |  Joseph.E 23/06/08
      25.   to #2 indrajaya - Why don`t you come here to see for yourself 18:36  |  b`Galil 23/06/08
      26.   This story certainly has sent the rats.. 18:40  |  H 23/06/08
      27.   # 26, H 18:47  |  indrajaya 23/06/08
      28.   1#Funny (It ain`t) 18:55  |  Nora 23/06/08
      29.   It is their country first and foremost... 18:58  |  ClearCut 23/06/08
      30.   Because Israel is their homeland..... 19:05  |  KMS 23/06/08
      31.   77% of those who left want to return 19:15  |  ClearCut 23/06/08
      32.   What an offensive and ridiculous article 19:17  |  Joe 23/06/08
      33.   To Hassan 19:18  |  another Israeli 23/06/08
      34.   Robert FROM Toronto-You`re right...most Jews would never leave 19:24  |  American Jew 23/06/08
      35.   I spoke with many Arabs during my trip to Israel 19:32  |  Gina 23/06/08
      36.   Home sweet home! 19:36  |  passerby 23/06/08
      37.   It seems to me that if people (Jew and Gentile) just butt out of 19:37  |  An observer 23/06/08
      38.   #22 - Refugee 19:42  |  Eric 23/06/08
      39.   Indrajayah 19:50  |  H 23/06/08
      40.   To Natalie Durson: it is not love but preference, to Israel 19:55  |  AA 23/06/08
      41.   according to another Harvard research diverse societies 20:01  |  z 23/06/08
      42.   Natalie #18 20:05  |  Hassan 23/06/08
      43.   #16 Gary 20:06  |  ballistic 23/06/08
      44.   # 39, H 20:07  |  indrajaya 23/06/08
      45.   But 100% of Arabs!!!!! 20:19  |  Realistic Arab 23/06/08
      46.   Israeli Arabs 20:21  |  Poppy 23/06/08
      47.   # 42, HASSAN 20:26  |  indrajaya 23/06/08
      48.   So the $ 1,000,000 question is.... 20:27  |  Goy 23/06/08
      49.   #1 American Jew 20:40  |  Ismael Yassin 23/06/08
      50.   This is terrible! 20:42  |  W 23/06/08
      51.   Simple facts that Natalie refuses to understand 20:42  |  Voice of Reason 23/06/08
      52.   The same holds true - west bank arabs pre 1987!! 20:48  |  Dr Eric 23/06/08
      53.   But what about living in the US? 20:49  |  W 23/06/08
      54.   Facts 20:51  |  Observer 23/06/08
      55.   Israeli Arabs know what is good for them 21:05  |  Connie 23/06/08
      56.   to #51 21:18  |  Northern 23/06/08
      57.   They know the Jewish world is better than Arab World 21:22  |  JP 23/06/08
      58.   This really is a good and just cause 21:24  |  JP 23/06/08
      59.   Question and comment 21:25  |  df 23/06/08
      60.   To all of u who called this "Their Land", read on 21:25  |  Massoud Levy 23/06/08
      61.   Palestinians are the original inhabitant of this land??........ 21:29  |  Massoud levy 23/06/08
      62.   They are indigenous 21:32  |  The Truth 23/06/08
      63.   Natallie 21:50  |  Michael 23/06/08
      64.   indrajaya, china will swallow you. 22:07  |  frenz 23/06/08
      65.   no surprise here. jews are the most humanitarian people on earth. 22:13  |  frenz 23/06/08
      66.   Only 77%???? 22:16  |  John 23/06/08
      67.   The Israeli Arabs are well respected and have great 22:20  |  ty 23/06/08
      68.   Nothing new - other similar polls, same results 22:27  |  Nechama 23/06/08
      69.   Why would you want to leave 22:35  |  Mazin Qumsiyeh 23/06/08
      70.   Indrajaya # 2 - Declaration From Another Part of The World 22:41  |  Amit 23/06/08
      71.