According to a recent poll, 48% of Israelis (Jews, not Arabs) do not want to see their children educated by Arabs while a smaller number, 42%, does not want to see their children education by chareidi teachers either.

The 48% opposes an Arab teacher as well as their children studying alongside Arab students. Among the 42%, which oppose a chareidi teacher, the remainder, 58%, is fine with such a situation.

Regarding Ethiopians, 86% are fine with an Ethiopian teacher and 83% are fine with a dati leumi teacher.

The survey, which was commissioned by the Kinneret College, polled 500 Israeli Jews. The poll was carried out by the Dialogue Institute ahead of the college’s annual conference on Israeli society this week.

34% of respondents do not want to see their children in a chareidi school and 12% oppose having classrooms integrated with Ethiopian Jews and 13% oppose religious students integrating with secular students.

Regarding a chareidi teacher, slighter fewer would tolerate a chareidi teacher, 44% as compared to 57% overall.

Even in Haifa, only 41% of respondents would tolerate integration between Jews and Arabs while nationwide, the figure is higher, 51%.

Kinneret College President Professor Shimon Gepstein was quoted by Yisrael Hayom saying. “The population around Kinneret College is a microcosm of Israeli society, and especially of the northern Israeli periphery. The Galil has a higher percentage of Arabs compared to other areas of the country, and the chareidi population has increased over the past several years as more chareidim moved there. If you add to these findings the socio-economic indicators and the percentage of college graduates in the Lower Galil and among Arabs in the north, a sad picture emerges, one that requires us to shake the educational system to its core.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)