The majority of British Jews do not believe Israel\u2019s efforts to make peace with the Palestinians are working, a new poll shows. Many also think Israel\u2019s continued occupation of Palestinian territories is detrimental to its standing in the world.<\/p>\n
The research, carried out by British pro-peace organization Yachad, found that over two-thirds of respondents feel a \u201csense of despair<\/em>\u201d when new Israeli settlements are approved in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n Some 90 percent of those polled support Israel\u2019s right to exist as a Jewish state, but the research found many British Jews don\u2019t support many government policies.<\/p>\n Over half said Israel \u201cwill be seen as an apartheid state if it tries to retain control over borders that contain more Arabs than Jews,<\/em>\u201d the study said.<\/p>\n The organization also found that three-quarters of respondents believe \u201cthe expansion of settlements on the West Bank is a major obstacle to peace,<\/em>\u201d with 72 percent rejecting the idea that Palestinians \u201chave no legitimate claim to a land of their own<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Some 73 percent agree the state\u2019s approach to peace is damaging its standing in the world.<\/p>\n The respondents were also questioned about the conflict in Gaza during the summer of 2014. The majority believed Israel was right to respond to the rockets fired from Gaza, but just over a third said the response was disproportionate.<\/p>\n During the conflict, more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed, the vast majority of them civilians, while 66 Israeli soldiers died.<\/p>\n Stephen Miller, who led the poll analysis, said there is a marked difference between generations, with younger British Jews more likely to be pro-peace.<\/p>\n \u201cOur research shows that although British Jews are overwhelmingly supportive of Israel\u2019s right to exist as a Jewish state, proud of its achievements and mindful of its security needs, their attitudes to its policies and conduct are far more diverse, and far more critical, than many would have expected,<\/em>\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In the UK more than 300 academics have shown their support for the boycott of Israel.<\/p>\n London Mayor Boris Johnson dismissed the call to boycott, arguing Israel is the only functioning democracy in the Middle East.<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot think of anything more foolish than to say you want to have any kind of divestment or sanctions or boycott against a country that, when all is said and done, is the only democracy in the region, is the only place that has, in my view, a pluralist open society,\u201d<\/em> he told reporters during a visit to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n RT<\/a>.\u00a0This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The majority of British Jews do not believe Israel\u2019s efforts to make peace with the Palestinians are working, a new poll shows. Many also think Israel\u2019s continued occupation of Palestinian territories is detrimental to its standing in the world. The research, carried out by British pro-peace organization Yachad, found that over two-thirds of respondents feel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":199600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-199777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}