The Pluralism Index

Pluralism Index 2023: Israelis Want a Democratic and Jewish State

Findings from a comprehensive survey on pluralism in Israeli society.

By: Shmuel Rosner, Professor Camil Fuchs, Noah Slepkov.

Pluralism Index 2023: Israelis Want a Democratic and Jewish State

[1] Constitutional Anchoring of the Vision of the State: Recommendations to the Minister of Justice, Ruth Gavison, 2014.

[2] See: The Arab Public 2019, Smooha Surveys – University of Haifa, Data Israel website. This questionnaire also included several different wordings that elicited varied responses. A third of the respondents answered in the negative to the question about whether Israel has a right to exist “as a Jewish-Zionist state,” while a quarter responded in the affirmative, and another third answered yes with “reservations” (which were not specified).

[3] It is interesting to compare this finding with the choice of Jewish Israelis when asked to what the definition of human beings (and not of the state) as Jews refers. In this case, 28% chose nationality. See: “Who Are Jews”:” the Views of Israeli Jews, Rosner, Fuchs, Slepkov, the Jewish People Policy Institute, 2022.

[4] A comparable finding can be found in an Israel Democracy Institute survey of a decade ago, in which the question was worded differently but the results were quite similar. Over half of the Jewish respondents regarded the state’s Jewishness as a “national marker,” versus a third of those who viewed it as a “religious” marker. See: Public Views Regarding a Jewish and Democratic State, Dror Walter, Chanan Cohen, 2011.

[5] See: “Don’t Drag the Declaration of Independence into the Court,” Yedidia Stern, Haaretz, 2018; “Moshe, Hang the Declaration Please,” Shmuel Rosner, theMadad.com, 2023.

[6] Sources: https://www.ice.co.il/local-news/news/article/934250 ; https://www.israelhayom.co.il/news/local/article/13735117 ; https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/sjc1084ui

[7] The full text of the question: Now we will read to you five sentences that were written about the vision of the State of Israel, and we will ask you to what extent you agree or disagree that this is the vision that most closely accords with the State of Israel today.

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