80% of Israelis angry with haredim, Arabs for conduct during crisis
Eighty percent of Israeli Jews believe the actions of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) and Arab sectors during the COVID19 crisis have negatively affected Israeli societal cohesion, according to a new study by the Jewish People Policy Institute.
In addition, a small majority of Israeli Jews and Arabs believe the two groups of citizens have a shared future, and a majority of Israeli Jews believe they have a shared future with the Diaspora, the JPPI’s 2021 Israel Pluralism Index indicated.
The survey was conducted by Prof. Camil Fuchs of Tel Aviv University. It included 603 respondents in the Jewish sector and 203 respondents in the non-Jewish sector, with a margin of error of 4% for the Jewish sector and a 9.7% margin of error in the non-Jewish sector.
The coronavirus crisis caused severe ruptures in Israeli society, with splits along different religious, ethnic and political divides.
In particular, both the haredi and Arab communities witnessed large-scale violations of coronavirus regulations, leading to high levels of infections in those sectors at different times.
Large weddings and funerals in both sectors caused outrage among the general population, while widespread civil disobedience in the haredi sector, including when tens of thousands of families sent their children to school in defiance of government orders, further exacerbated the secular public’s frustration.