Historic poll conducted after Six Day War sheds light on shifting opinions

80% of those quizzed in 1967 wanted the recently captured West Bank held under any circumstances. 52 years on, a majority of Israelis oppose annexation.

By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDS
DAVID RUBINGER’S iconic photo of the IDF paratroopers at the Kotel during the Six Day War in 1967. (photo credit: DAVID RUBINGER/GPO)
DAVID RUBINGER’S iconic photo of the IDF paratroopers at the Kotel during the Six Day War in 1967.
(photo credit: DAVID RUBINGER/GPO)
In June 1967, the armies of five Arab states readied their armies. Their goal was the annihilation of the Jewish State of Israel. Instead, in events so astonishing that they are still pored over today, within six days Israel had not only seen off the threat, but had captured the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank including East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. 
In the days following the war, the Institute for Practical Social Research, the Guttman Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute conducted an in-depth survey of 2,479 Jewish Israelis, quizzing them on a wide range of topics including their attitudes toward the government, toward other Israelis, and toward their Arab neighbors.
Now, 52 years on, the results of that survey have been brought to light by the Israel Democracy Institute, and the results are illuminating.
The survey began with broadly demographic questions such as age, sex, and origin, with nearly half of all respondents revealing that their father had been born in Middle or Eastern Europe, while 21.7% were of Middle Eastern and Levant descent, and a further 14% were from Northern African lineage. Only 13.7% of respondents were themselves born in Israel, with the largest group, 37%, having immigrated to the country between the years of 1948 and 1951.
By the 2013 census, this picture had changed dramatically. Of the approximately 6 million Jews living in Israel that year, just over 70% were born in Israel. Thousands of Jews had moved into the regions captured five decades previously - 280,000 were living in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) by 2013, 190,000 in East Jerusalem, and a further 20,000 in the Golan Heights.
The demographic shift has been accompanied by a marked change in attitudes over the years, even as the issues facing Israelis have remained remarkably similar.
Questions over the application of sovereignty to the areas captured in the Six Day War are still with us, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to unilaterally annex up to 30% of the West Bank in July. Polls measuring support for the measure show that between 32.2% (according to the Geneva Initiative’s Two-State Coalition) and half (according to the Israeli Voice Index for May 2020) of Israelis support annexation of parts of the West Bank.
But back in 1967, Israelis were much more belligerent. Some 80% of respondents that year thought that the West Bank should be held by Israel under any condition, whereas only 9.8% thought it should not be held.
Similarly, 71.6% wanted to hold the Gaza Strip, and 80.1% wanted Sharm el Sheikh to be kept, although both were eventually handed over, to the Palestinians and Egypt respectively.
Support was strongest for holding the Old City in Jerusalem "under any condition," with 92.8% of respondents backing this option, while support was also strong for holding the Golan Heights - 88% of respondents wanted it held under any circumstances.
Having won the war decisively, Israelis at the time were in little mood to be magnanimous: 65.7% of those polled thought that only minor concessions should be made to the Arab states to broker lasting peace, and a further 18.2% wanted to see no concessions at all. But Israelis at the time were less optimistic about the Arab appetite for peace; 39.4% of respondents said they did not think the Arab states were ready for peace despite their defeat, although a further third (27.8%) ventured that the Arabs might now be ready.
Asked how that peace might best come about, 78.7% thought that direct talks with Arab states was the most likely option, by far and away the most favored response. By contrast, when asked in a poll taken in early June of this year whether they supported or opposed opening direct negotiations between the Israeli government and Palestinian leadership, 64.8% of those polled by the Geneva Initiative’s Two-State Coalition thought that Israel should negotiate directly, while just over one in five (22.8%) thought that the government should not.
The 1967 survey also asked a range of questions on Jewish attitudes toward the Arabs living alongside them. 29% of Jews surveyed following the war said they were "definitely ready" to make friends with an Arab, 23.4% said they would be willing to share a home with an Arab family, and 18.2% said they would be willing to live in a neighborhood where Arabs also lived.
But the war had left deep impressions of mistrust between the groups: 68.4% of Jews said they were "not ready" or "definitely not ready" to share a neighborhood with Arabs, 59.5% would not like to share a home with an Arab family, and 50.3% were unwilling to make friends with Arabs.
When asked: "Some people say that the Arabs can make great progress, but will never reach the same level as the Jews. What do you think?" the Jewish population was largely in agreement with this statement. 38.2% said they absolutely agreed, and a further 19.6% agreed, against 9.2% who definitely disagreed, and 15.6% who disagreed. Yet only 12.2% of Jews thought there was no need to teach Arabic in schools, whereas 45% thought it should be mandatory.


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