The Israeli Democracy Index 2023

The 21^st edition of Israeli Democracy Index, conducted by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute, takes the pulse of the public on the basis of a survey among a representative sample of the entire population of Israel.

The Index is the go-to address for reliable, comprehensive, and up-to-date information on the Israeli public’s attitudes and opinions on a broad range of issues at the core of Israeli democracy. The findings and their analysis significantly impact the public discourse and provide policymakers with the information they need for sound decision-making.

As in previous years, data was collected in June of 2023. However, in light of the horrifying attacks on October 7^th, the outbreak of the war in Gaza, and the likelihood of their impact on the public’s attitudes and opinions in a range of key areas, we revisited several questions included in the June survey in December 2023 and January 2024. The questions that were revisited assessed whether there had been significant changes following the outbreak of the war and among which groups in the population. 

The two time periods in which the data were collected reflect two deeply significant events in Israeli history: an unprecedented protest movement against the proposed judicial overhaul, and the intense fighting and tragic loss of lives in the war in Gaza following the October 7 massacre by Hamas.

The findings presented here provide a snapshot of the public's attitudes and beliefs in diverse areas:

• The overall situation in Israel and the extent to which Israeli democracy is under threat.
• Trust in official institutions, such as the IDF, the Supreme Court, the police, political parties, and others.
• Tensions between various groups that make up Israel's social mosaic: Right and Left, rich and poor, Jews and Arabs, secular and religious Jews, and Ashkenazim and Mizrahim.
• Social solidarity, or "sense of togetherness," both in terms of Israeli society as a whole and just within Jewish society.
• The potential for a new social contract, looking at whether there is a common set of values in Israeli society and whether a new social and political contract could be underway.

Taken together, the topics in the Israeli Democracy Index paint a complex picture of Israeli society both before and after the tragic events of October 7^th, 2023 and the ensuing war. While some areas have seen a great deal of change—such as a surge in the level of trust in the police—other areas remain steady, such as the perception of tension between Jews and Arabs and the Right and the Left.