Survey: More Than Half of Israeli Arabs Feel ‘Shared Destiny’ with Israeli Jews

Photo Credit: TPS

The Israeli-Arab city of Umm al-Fahm.

More than half of all Israeli Arabs believe the current war has fostered a sense of shared destiny between Arab and Jewish citizens, according to a new study released Wednesday.

KAP survey of Arab citizens December 2024 ENG” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>For the full report, click here.

The survey by the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation at Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center showed that 57.8 percent of respondents believe Israel’s two largest populations share a common destiny.

The researchers emphasize that this is a statistically significant shift in the attitude of Arab Israelis towards the war.

Additionally, 33.9 percent of Israeli Arabs feel their Israeli citizenship is a key element in their personal identify; 29.2 percent of respondents felt their religious affiliation defines their identity, and 26.9 percent said their Arab identity was the most important to them.

In a similar study conducted a year ago (November 2023), the majority of the Israeli Arab public (69.8 percent) said the war had harmed solidarity between Arabs and Jews.

Moreover, when compared to the results of a survey conducted in June 2024, the current study indicates a positive trend: at the time, only 51.6 percent of the respondents felt that a sense of shared destiny had arisen between Arabs and Jews, and the current figure represents a statistically significant increase in this metric.

“It cannot be ignored that a significant segment of Arab Israelis define their Israeli citizenship as the most important element in their personal identity,” the researchers said.

“The current survey suggests that, possibly as a result of the continuing war, the instrumental Israeli citizenship has become more important than the Arab identity, which carries deeper meanings such as religion, nationality, culture, tradition, language, and values.”