Less Than Quarter of Israeli Jews in Favor of Renewed Settlement in Gaza, Poll Finds
Less than a quarter of Israelis believe that Israel should reestablish its settlements in the Gaza Strip when the war ends, a new poll from the Israel Democracy Institute found.
When asked what should be done now that most of Israel's forces have left Gaza, 33 percent said they believe control of the territory should be handed over to an international force, and 24 percent said that a small number of Israeli forces should be stationed there to maintain military control.
Nineteen percent said that Jewish settlements should be built in Gaza, and 13 percent said that it should be handed over to the Palestinian Authority.
For Jewish respondents, 22.5 percent said that settlements should be established,which the institute notes is a decline of 3 percentage points since December 2023. When broken down by religious sects, no group but the Haredim expressed majority support for this – and for the Haredim, it is a small majority of 52 percent.
For religious Zionists, 39 percent said they support resettlement; for self-identified traditional Jews, 28 percent claimed to support it; and for secular Jews, seven percent said they support it.
Among Arab Israelis, 46 percent said that the Palestinian Authority should control the Strip, 25 percent believe that an international force should be stationed there and 7.5 percent claimed to prefer an Israeli military presence – the remaining 20.5 percent said that they didn't know, and just 1 percent said they support resettling Gaza.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir with other Israeli lawmakers at the 'Resettle Gaza' conference.Credit: Olivier Fitoussi
The institute also examined the widespread belief that Israelis have not seen pictures or videos showing the massive destruction in Gaza. It found that the vast majority – 87 percent of Jews and 68 percent of Arabs – said that they had seen a few or many images or videos of the destruction. "In other words," the poll authors said, "the claim regarding the lack of exposure in the Israeli public would seem to be ungrounded."
On the political front, out of the total sample of 514 Israelis, 62 percent said that they "think or are certain that the time has come for those responsible for the failure of October 7 to resign from their positions."
Among Arab Israelis in general and Jews who identify with the political center and left, the number is over 80 percent; among right-wing Jews, only 44 percent believe that they should resign.
The survey was conducted by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute, between April 14 and April 17. The maximum sampling error was ±4.04 percent at a confidence level of 95 percent. Field work was carried out by the Lazar Research Institute.