Poll shows only 13% of Australians believe in a Palestine state established with out without a peace deal
A new poll reveals that a majority of Australian Labor voters are not in favour of the party recognising a Palestinian state without a peace deal being struck between the Palestine Authority and Israel.
The poll was conducted by research firm YouGov Galaxy on behalf of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
Some Labor state branches are advocated and voted for the party’s recognition of a Palestinian state before a peace deal is brokered. Their votes could mean that Federal Labor will have to adopt their platform at July’s national conference.
The 1205 voters polled represented all demographics.
“A significant percentage of respondents answered “Don’t know” to certain questions, but this was not unexpected”, said ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim. “It reflects the fact that the Israel-Palestinian conflict is not front-of-mind for most Australians, and demonstrates a reluctance by many to express definitive views on issues which they recognise are complex. Those who simplistically advocate immediate and unconditional recognition of a Palestinian state are recklessly disregarding whether this would help end the conflict or make it worse. They should instead show the same humility and wisdom as most Australians. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread”.
The poll was conducted between 15 and 18 February 2018 among 1,205 Australians aged 18 years and older, throughout Australia. The demographic distribution of the sample as between age, gender, marital/parental status, geographical location, income level and educational attainment reflected that of published ABS data. The distribution by voting intention reflected the most recent published polls. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.9%. YouGov is one of the largest and most widely respected polling companies in the UK and Australia. Its services are used by both left and right-wing organisations, and those with no party political affiliations..
Respondents were asked “Do you think Australia should recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel”? 40% answered “Yes”, 21% “No” and 39% “Don’t know”. Excluding the “Don’t know” group, those answering “Yes’ were 66% of those who gave an opinion.
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the ECAJ, said he was “pleasantly surprised” by this finding. “Given the welter of negative international media coverage that followed the USA’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in November 2017, we were not expecting this move to be supported by such a high percentage of Australians, let alone by a margin of nearly two to one compared to those opposed”.
It is also widely used and respected in the UK.
