Most Israelis support encouraging mass emigration from Gaza

New poll shows vast majority of Israelis oppose Palestinian statehood, support encouraging Gazans to emigrate en masse.

By World Israel News Staff

Roughly three-quarters of Israelis oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, a new poll shows, with a similar number of Israelis supporting efforts to encourage the mass emigration of Arabs from the Gaza Strip.

The poll was conducted by the Direct Pulse agency on behalf of the Sovereignty Movement, a right-wing Israeli activist group which promotes the application of Israeli law over Judea and Samaria.

The results of the survey were released at a conference hosted by the Sovereignty Movement in Jerusalem last week.

According to the poll, 74% of Israelis oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, while 20% support Palestinian statehood.

Furthermore, 76% say Israel should encourage Gazans to emigrate en masse, compared to just 16% who opposed encouraging mass emigration from Gaza.

Support for mass emigration from Gaza was high among voters for the centrist National Unity party and the center-left Yesh Atid faction, with 71% of National Unity and 61% of Yesh Atid voters backing steps to facilitate large-scale emigration.

Sixty-nine percent of National Unity voters and 50% of Yesh Atid voters say they oppose Palestinian statehood,.

“We don’t have to encourage the Gazans to leave, they want to leave,” MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party), chairman of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee said during the conference.

“It is just necessary to not cooperate with Hamas. Any state that does not allow the residents of Gaza to enter its gates is helping Hamas to use its population as human shields to imprison them there. There can be no cooperation with Hamas, which uses its population as human shields. This is the humane and ethical thing to do.”