72% of Israelis feel that corruption in Israel’s governmental system is “high to very high”. The poll was taken ahead of the Sderot Conference on Social Issues. Participants in the poll feel that the most corrupt bodies are political parties (69%) followed by government offices (46%). Emerging with the most integrity is the IDF and defense related offices, which only 11% of the public believing they are corrupt.

The Knesset’s integrity in the public’s eye continues to drop, now with 46% feeling it is corrupt, becoming the third most corrupt body in this poll, compared to 44% in 2006. The Knesset ranked 44% in 2007 as well.

Rated as “corrupt-to-very-corrupt” were Israel Police (29%), the Histadrut (27%), local government (37%), and manpower agencies (33%).

The poll was conducted by the Maagar Mochot Institute in November based on 543 respondents representing a cross-section of the adult population with questions posed to respondents in Hebrew, Arabic and Russian.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)