53% of Israeli Jews Want Terror Suspects Executed on Spot

Image by Getty Images
More than half of Jewish-Israelis say they believe any Palestinian “who has perpetrated a terror attack against Jews should be killed on the spot,” according to a new survey.
The Peace Index, a monthly poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute, released a report Thursday focusing on views about the current wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks on Jewish-Israelis and Israel’s efforts to stem the violence.
In addition to finding that 53 percent of Jewish-Israelis support extrajudicial killing of Palestinian terrorists, the survey revealed that Arab-Israelis are more fearful than Jewish-Israelis as a result of the increasing violence. The survey did not ask Arab-Israelis about extrajudicial killing.
According to the poll, 57 percent of Jewish-Israelis fear they or someone close to them will be harmed, compared to 78 percent of Arab-Israelis. In addition, more Arab-Israelis (53 percent compared to 36 percent of Jewish-Israelis) say they have changed their daily habits in response to the security situation.
The survey also found dramatic Arab-Jewish differences on which terrorists to punish — and how.
Eighty percent of Jewish-Israelis said Palestinian homes should be razed if the homeowner or a family member carries out an attack “for nationalist reasons,” while 53 percent see this as an appropriate punishment for a Jewish person who carries out a nationalist-motivated terror attack. (Seventy-seven percent of Arab-Israelis oppose razing Palestinian homes, and 67 percent oppose razing Jewish ones.)
While 70 percent of Jewish-Israelis believe the punishments for terrorist are too light, 60 percent of Arab-Israelis believe the punishments are too heavy.
The survey, conducted by telephone on Oct. 28-29, included 600 adult respondents “who constitute a representative national sample,” according to the researchers. The survey had a 4.1 percent margin of error.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.