Poll: Most Israelis Support Restricting Human Rights Groups (Haaretz)

The majority of Israelis (based on a sample of 500 Israelis) believe that human rights groups ought to be restricted, as they talk too much about Israel's illegal acts, even if they are true.

According to a Haaretz article:

More than half (57.6%) of Jewish Israelis think human rights organizations that expose immoral behavior by Israel should not be allowed to operate freely, and think there is too much freedom of expression here, a recent survey found.

The survey, commissioned by the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at Tel Aviv University, will be presented Wednesday at a conference on the limits of freedom of expression.

The poll also found that most of the respondents favor punishing Israeli citizens who support sanctioning or boycotting the country, and support punishing journalists who report news that reflects badly on the actions of the defense establishment.

Another 82% of respondents said they back stiff penalties for people who leak illegally obtained information exposing immoral conduct by the defense establishment.

The poll showed 65% of all of those questioned think the Israeli media should be barred from publishing news that defense officials think could endanger state security, even if the news was reported abroad.

Another 43% said the media should not report information confirmed by Palestinian sources that could reflect poorly on the Israeli army.

58% of respondents opposed harsh criticism of the country, an increase of 10 percentage points from 2003.

[edit on 26-5-2010 by MightyAl]

reply to post by MightyAl


on the other side of this conflict, muslim terrorists delibratly target these groups operating in their country. the local population treats them sub human and even state officals will harrass and even use violence against these same groups. but statistically speaking 500 people poled doesnt make a good statistic, you need to make the margin of error at LEAST under 5%.

reply to post by jakemil


Yes, that's why I mentioned the sample population in the beginning of my post. It's only half the amount of the minimum for a normal population. Still it's notable to see how 500 people feel though.

Nevertheless, the Israeli government does not oppress their own people, so why should the people not support their country? The only ones who are being oppressed by the Israeli government are the Palestinians.

And as far as the Israelis are concerned they are the ones who are flying rockets into Israel making life unsafe for the average Israeli. So what else should their country do but defend itself and save the people of Israel? From that standpoint the results make sense.

It's a narrow-minded and selfish viewpoint, but plausible.