Israelis Support Moving the Embassy to Jerusalem

The monthly Peace Index of the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University published today found that the majority of Israelis believe that moving the embassy to Jerusalem on Israel’s 70th anniversary will escalate violence - but oppose postponing the move. In addition 59% of the Jewish and 75% of the Arab public do not believe the Prime Minister’s claims to innocence – despite the fact that the polls indicate that there is a near-consensus that the majority of the public supports Netanyahu.

Highlights:
Moving the American embassy to Jerusalem: The majority of both the Jewish and Arab public (61%) believes that it is very likely that moving the American embassy to Jerusalem for Israel’s 70th Independence Day, will ignite an outbreak of violence against Israel among Palestinians. Nevertheless, 69% think that even in light of the expectation of violence, Israel should not ask the Americans to postpone the move. In the Arab public, the large majority (77.5%) favor deferment of the transfer of the embassy.

Should the United States postpone the transfer of the embassy to Jerusalem to a different date? (by political affiliation)

Supporting PM Netanyahu: The majority of the Jewish (59%) and Arab (75%) public do not believe Prime Minister Netanyahu’s claims to innocence. Nevertheless he continues to enjoy widespread public support. In addition, despite the differences of opinion between the political factions there is now a near-consensus that half or more of the public currently supports Netanyahu.

Netanyahu’s investigations and public trust in the authorities: Public trust in the professionalism of the law enforcement authorities conducting the Netanyahu investigations is split-- - 50.5% of the Jewish public trust the police’s professionalism, while 45.4% do not. As for the Attorney-General Mandelblit,, who will have to decide whether or not to indict the Prime Minister, 56% believe that his decision will be professional while 33% disagree. 53% of the public trusts the legal system in general, while a large minority (43%) does not. Finally, 42% of the public think that Netanyahu should not resign even if he is indicted.

The Peace Index is a project of the Evens Program for Mediation and Conflict Resolution at Tel Aviv University and the Guttman Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research of the Israel Democracy Institute. This month's survey was conducted by telephone and internet on March 13-14, 2018, by the Midgam Research Institute. The survey included 600 respondents, who constitute a representative national sample of the adult population of Israel aged 18 and over. The maximum measurement error for the entire sample is ±4.1% at a confidence level of 95%. Statistical analyses were done by Ms. Yasmin Alkalay.

For the full report