Some Israelis on the Palestinian State
Last night on BBC 4's current affairs program "The World" a reporter conducted a mini-survey amongst six Israelis, regarding how they felt about the future of Israel/Palestine. The program item should be seen in the light of a looming Kadima election victory and Olmert's intention to draw Israel's borders unilaterally in the absence of a negotiated settlement.So, our intrepid reporter set about, armed with a wall chart sized map of Israel and a red marker pen and invited six Israelis to draw what they felt should be Israel's unilaterally declared future borders. Six hardly constitutes a proper survey, I'll gladly concede that, but the results where nonetheless interesting:
1. All six wanted Israel to hang onto the Golan Heights, for security reasons.
2. Four agreed that Gaza should remain under Palestinian control, although one proposed chopping off two small buffer zones in the North and South.
3. Three proposed the West Bank should also be under Palestinian control, but all of these agreed the Maale Adumim and Ariel blocks should remain part of Israel.
4. Two didn't want a Palestinian state whatsoever, with one drawing the future borders well into Jordan, Syrian and Egyptian territories.
5. Two, when commenting their choice, used religion as a justification.
Keywords: Israel, Palestine, Olmert, Kadima
posted by Gert @ 4:13 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Who were the six Israelis and how/where were they chosen? Was it like a street-cam type thing? Picking six random people off the streets of Tel Aviv would produce different results than doing the same in Jerusalem, or any other city.
But I have to say the results are only slightly exaggerated on some issues (like one-third citing religion: I hope it's less in the general population), and on others they are pretty accurate. A weird concensus has evolved around the Goland Hights, Ariel and Maale Adumim. Most Israelis think they should remain a part of Israel. In the case of the latter two, I think this might partially be influenced by the fact that most Israelis don't really know the geography of the West Bank. They don't know those two places would be enclaves, and how seriously they'd harm the Palestinian state's contiguity.
Hmm... I actually agree with an Israel-related post of yours. Feels odd. :)
emmanuel:
I CLEARLY stated that this wasn't a representative survey, just the opinion of six Israelis.
Thnks for your comment.
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