Israeli public opinion after October 7

The attack by Hamas and other Islamist groups on Israel on October 7, 2023 traumatized the entire country and has dominated the debates of the last six months. The massacre hit Israeli society at a time of deep polarization. For 39 weeks, tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, had protested against the Netanyahu government's so-called judicial reform. The shock, the trauma, the need to help themselves in the face of an inactive or incompetent government and the war in the Gaza Strip initially pushed this polarization into the background.

However, new and old debates are now taking place - people are arguing and discussing openly and publicly. What responsibility does the government bear for allowing the crimes of October 7, 2023 to occur? Why is Benjamin Netanyahu not prepared to take responsibility? Is the government doing enough and the right thing to free the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip? Is the government deliberately or negligently jeopardizing relations with the USA and other allies? What should the post-war period look like? Is the government still trying to implement its "judicial reform"?

Because of these and other issues, people are once again taking to the streets in their thousands, disrupting parliamentary sessions and calling ever more blatantly for new elections.

At the same time, there is very little protest against the Israeli warfare in the Gaza Strip. Few Israeli media report on what is happening there on a daily basis. The idea and the wish that Hamas could be destroyed militarily is more powerful than criticism of the warfare or even empathy with the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip.

Together with Prof. Tamar Hermann from the Israel Democracy Institute, we will talk about the development of public opinion in Israel after October 7, 2023 as part of the online discussion. We want to take a look at changes, trends and contradictions and try to look ahead to the coming months. These analyses are supported by decades of regular surveys in Israel, which are conducted, evaluated and analysed by Tamar Hermann.

With:

• Prof. Tamar Hermann (Senior Research Fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and Academic Director of the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research)

Moderation: Jörn Böhme (Co-Chair of the New Israel Fund Germany)

The event is organized in cooperation with New Israel Fund Germany & New Israel Fund Austria

Language: English with simultaneous translation into German
» Online via Zoom & Livestream

Information:    
Bauke Baumann, Senior Programme Officer, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
E-Mail, baumann@boell.de
Telefon +49(0)285 34 -321

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