Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

49% of Israelis Wouldn’t Live in Building With Arabs

While most Israelis oppose separation of Jews and Arabs in hospitals, nearly half of Israeli Jews would not live in the same apartment building as an Arab family, a survey found.

Some 49 percent of Israeli Jews told Israel’s Channel 2 that they would not live in the same building as Arab families, compared to 42 percent who said they would be willing. Nine percent said they were not sure.

The survey broadcast on Saturday comes after Jewish Home lawmaker Bezalel Smotrich said last week that Arab and Jewish mothers in Israel’s maternity wards should be placed in separate rooms. His statement followed an Israel Radio report that some Israeli hospitals acquiesce to requests to separate Arab and Jewish patients.

Eighty-two percent of Jewish-Israeli respondents said they would let an Arab doctor treat them, while 13 percent said they would not.

Some 34 percent of Jewish respondents said they supported segregation between Jewish and Arab women in hospital maternity wards, and 61 percent said they should not be separated.

The survey was conducted on April 7 among 505 Hebrew-speaking respondents.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.