Israeli public favors stated government policy of expelling majority of more than 1,500 African immigrants currently in Israel

Ynetnews:

Forty-seven percent of Israelis support the government's intention to expel the majority of infiltrators from Africa while only 39% oppose the policy. A poll conducted by the Kevoon Institute found that of those polled 14% percent were undecided.

The question posed to over 500 adult Jewish Israelis was: "Over the past year 1,500 refugees from the Sudan have illegally entered Israel. The government believes most of them have come here looking for work. While the refugees claim they are escaping persecution and genocide and returning would mean certain death. Recently the government of Israel adopted a policy to deport most of the refugees to Egypt soon. Do you support the government's policy of deporting the Sudanese refugees or do you think that they should be allowed to legally stay in Israel?"

A breakdown of the data found that 42% of women opposed the policy whereas only 36% of men said the same. A majority of men, 54%, were in favor of the government's policy compared to 40% of women.

Attitudes towards religion also seem to play a role, the study found that the more religious the individual, the more likely they were to support the government's policy.

Of those who identified themselves as strictly Orthodox, 67% were in favor of expulsion compared to 13% who opposed it. Among respondents who identified themselves as religious, 55% were in favor of expulsion compared to 35% who were opposed. Similar figures were noted for respondents who defined themselves as traditional – 52% favored expulsion compared to 31% who opposed it.

The only sector where support for the government's policy was the minority opinion was among secular respondents – 39% favored expulsion compared to 49% who opposed it.

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