New report: Wave of pessimism about Israeli democracy from UK Jews as ties ‘may fray’
Four-in-five British Jews disapprove of Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right bedfellows according to a new report released today by the Institute of Jewish Policy Research.
A “wave of pessimism” about the Israeli government has swept British Jewry in recent weeks, according to a new report from a Jewish think-tank, with British Jews’ relationship with Israel “starting to fray”.
Disapproval ratings for Benjamin Netanyahu were at record highs of 79 percent, with similar or higher figures for his two far-right coalition allies – Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the finance minister and national security minister respectively.
The figures from the British Jewish community, released this week by the Institute of Jewish Policy Research (JPR), are based on polling since the end of 2022, just before the ruling Israeli coalition came to power.
JPR said it was “striking” that disapproval ratings for both the prime minister and Smotrich had climbed “substantially” over the past six months by about five percentage points in the case of Smotrich, and ten in the case of Netanyahu.
The figures from the British Jewish community, released this week by the Institute of Jewish Policy Research (JPR), are based on polling since the end of 2022, just before the ruling Israeli coalition came to power.
“That period has been marked particularly by the Israeli government’s judicial reform plans,” it said, referencing the cause of the biggest protests in Israel’s history.
The reforms are ongoing attempts by ministers to wrench power and independence from Israel’s judiciary, in a battle that demonstrators say risks the very essence of the country’s democracy. The first such law was voted through by the coalition last week.
Optimism is in short supply both within and outside Israel, as JPR said 72 percent of British Jews were pessimistic about the state of democratic governance in Israel in the foreseeable future. Likewise, only 18 percent of Israelis were optimistic.
“Their levels of concern have not been this high for about 15 years and they have risen sharply since 2020,” noted JPR authors Jonathan Boyd and Carli Lessof in the factsheet published on Tuesday.
Around 90 percent of British Jews have visited Israel and 70 percent say they feel a sense of attachment to it and see it as a big part of their identity, yet Boyd and Lessof said “there are some indications that the relationship may be shifting”.
For instance, the proportion of British Jews self-identifying as ‘Zionist’ has fallen by about ten percentage points over the past decade, they noted, which could “suggest a growth in uncertainty, discomfort or ambivalence” among some.
“The new data showing such high disapproval ratings for key members of the current Israeli government provide another sign that the bonds that have long tied Jews in the UK to Israel may be starting to fray,” they said.
The findings draw on data from two recent JPR panel surveys – the 2022 National Jewish Identity Survey in November/December 2022, and the 2023 Antisemitism in the UK in April/May 2023.
Worryingly, the societal rupture that Netanyahu’s judicial assault has caused in Israel could spread to British shores, they warned.
Boyd said: “Israeli society is currently struggling vigorously over the future direction of the country and whether it will give primacy to democratic principles or move in a more autocractic and ethnocentric direction.
“As this issue is playing itself out on the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, it seems that Jews across the UK are being compelled to ask themselves a new question: not whether they support Israel, but rather which Israel they support.
“It is distinctly possible that the tensions in Israel will spill over to diaspora Jewish communities. Indeed, in the UK at least, the data suggest the community may already be showing some signs of the strain.”
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