Posted on 03/21/23
| News Source: Arutz-7
A new poll conducted for the haredi news website Kikar Hashabbat has revealed extremely high support for the government's judicial reform package among the haredi population, despite dire warnings from those on the Left that the reforms will lead to economic hardship.
The poll surveyed over a thousand people and was taken following Israeli President Isaac Herzog's presentation of his so-called "People's Outline" for judicial reform, billed as a compromise by Herzog but decried as totally one-sided by the coalition, which rejected it outright. The opposition, which declined to participate in talks with Herzog prior to the crafting of the outline (while the coalition sent representatives to speak with the president on dozens of occasions), adopted the outline enthusiastically.
Avi Wiederman, head of the polling agency which conducted the survey, told Kikar Hashabbat that, "The most interesting piece of data that emerged here is that a decisive majority of the haredi population sees this as a dispute between right and left, between those for Bibi [PM Netanyahu] and those against him. Therefore, it's not really surprising that so many haredim support the reforms. On the other hand, many haredim would like to see a compromise emerge, though they would prefer that haredi MKs not be the ones leading that effort."
Among the survey's findings:
88 percent of haredim said they support the reforms, with just 7 percent opposed. Five percent expressed no opinion either way. 87 percent of respondents said they supported the reforms even if there was an economic price to pay (such as a rise in interest rates and a higher cost of living). Just 6 percent of respondents said they would not support the reforms if there was an economic price to pay, with 7 percent expressing no opinion.
The poll also found that 36 percent of respondents believe that the current protest movement is an outgrowth of the "Anyone but Bibi" movement. Just 17 percent of those surveyed see the dispute as one over the balance of powers between the various branches of government.