68% wants political parties to fight for religious freedom & equality

74% Israeli public prefers civil government coalition

74% of the Israeli public prefers a civil government based on a partnership between Likud and the Blue-&-White party, independent of the ultra-Orthodox parties’ dictates. 68% of the Israeli public wants the party it votes for to fight for the advancement of religious freedom and equality of the civic burden.

12/06/2019 12:19

Tags: Hiddush polls ·  2019 elections

74% of the Jewish public in Israel is interested in a civil government based on a partnership between Likud and the Blue-&-White party, assuming that the election results do not change radically, independent of the ultra-Orthodox parties’ dictates, which will promote freedom of religion and equality of the burden. According to this Smith Institute survey for Hiddush - for freedom of religion and equality, only 26% of the public is interested in a government dependent on the support of the ultra-Orthodox parties and on their demands on religion and state. These findings reflect the distribution of those who held opinions, among a representative sample of Israel’s adult Jewish population (80% of the sample).

An analysis of the responses by votes for the Knesset in the last elections shows that among those who hold opinions, 61% of Likud voters and 100% of Blue-&-White voters support the establishment of a civil government based on cooperation between these two parties after the elections. This is also the case with 93% of Yisrael Beiteinu voters and 96% of Kulanu voters.

 A break-down of the responses according to the respondents’ voting intentions for the upcoming Knesset elections shows that among those who hold opinions, 57% of Likud voters and 97% of Blue-&-White voters support the establishment of a civil government after the elections, as do 98% of Yisrael Beiteinu voters.

Hiddush has been exploring and analyzing the implications of religious and state issues on Israeli elections for a long time, and the current survey is the fifth in a series initiated before and after the April 2019 elections, which have explored the public's positions in similar formulations. A comparison of the data from the various surveys indicates that public opinion on this issue is consistent. In the pre-election Hiddush survey in February, 65% of the public expressed its desire for a coalition independent of the ultra-Orthodox parties’ demands. In April 2019, shortly after the elections, 66% of the adult Jewish public responded that it wants a unity government based on a partnership between the Likud and Blue-&-White parties, without the ultra-Orthodox parties’ dictates.

How important is it to you that the party for which you voted in the last elections will fight in the Knesset for the promotion of religious freedom and equality of the civic burden?

Hiddush also explored another question: "How important is it to you that the party for which you voted in the last elections will fight in the Knesset for the promotion of religious freedom and equality of the civic burden and related issues such as civil marriage and divorce, the operation of public transportation on the Sabbath, the conscription of yeshiva students, etc.?"

68% of respondents with an opinion on the subject [93% of the sample] responded that this matter is very important or quite important to them. This figure indicates a slight increase compared to the April survey [65%]. Only 17% thought it was not so important or unimportant, and 15% responded that they oppose the party that they voted for acting upon these issues.

An analysis of the distribution of opinions according to voting intentions shows that this is important for 56% of those who intend to vote for Likud in the upcoming elections, 93% - Blue-&-White, 100% - Labor, 76% - Yisrael Beiteinu.

Previous surveys have directly indicated that commitment to the advancement of religious freedom and equality of civic burden will increase the number of voters likely to vote for parties that will undertake this. Therefore, this finding is of particular importance: 91% of those who have not yet decided which party to vote in September want the party that they vote for to promote freedom of religion and equality of the civic burden!

Additional findings of interest are that these subjects are of significantly greater importance to women than to men [73% and 62%, respectively]. Also, a large majority sees this as important not only among the secular public [84%], but also among the traditional non-religious public [72%].

We live in hope that the unequivocal and consistent position of the public, which expects its elected officials to advance the values of freedom of religion and equality that are promised in the Declaration of Independence, will be internalized by the parties running in the Knesset elections. The recent emphasis upon these positions by Yisrael Beiteinu and MK Avigdor Lieberman is undoubtedly based on these findings. As the current survey shows, the expectation of Blue-&-White voters that their party will fight resolutely on these issues is ever greater. It's time for Blue-&-White and the Labor party to drop their illusions of buying the ultra-Orthodox parties’ votes at the cost of giving up on these issues. Not only will the ultra-Orthodox parties not shift their support away from the Likud-led bloc, unless the Opposition has a large enough bloc to prevent the formation of a government, but in the meantime, these parties are missing out on voters who are refusing to support them due to their lack of backbones in the critical struggle for freedom of religion and equality in Israel.

The survey was conducted by telephone on June 4, 2019 among a representative sample of 500 persons among the adult Jewish population of Israel (ages 18 and over). Sampling error - 4.5% ±.