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Though clearly parsing words, a new poll by the Israel Democracy Institute shows approximately one-third of Jewish Israelis believe “the government should encourage Arab emigration from Israel.”

23% of respondents “strongly agree” and 14.5% “somewhat agree” with the prospect of encouraging emigration. In other words, 37.5% of Jewish Israelis think coercive deportation of Israeli Arabs is a legitimate option.

Of course, the Israeli government already employs restrictive policies against Palestinian and Bedouin Arabs within the state, aimed at forcing this population to leave. With punitive home demolitions, inability to receive building permits, the revocation of citizenship and a highly militarized state apparatus, the goal of the Israeli government is to continue shifting demographics in favor of an entirely Jewish state.

Ayellet Shaked, Justice Minister and senior Habeyit Hayehudi or Jewish Home party member, alluded to the killing of Palestinian mothers who give birth to “little snakes” in Facebook comments in May.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated outright that the Palestinian State option is off the table.

In the same study, the IDI conducted a comparative analysis of democracy factors between Israel and 27 other countries, judging things like freedom of the press and political participation. According to the authors, “This year, Israel is once again ranked at the midpoint or higher in most of the democracy indicators. It stands out favorably in measures of life satisfaction and political participation, while showing a less-than-distinguished performance when it comes to civil liberties and social policies.”

Israel actually made gains in factors such as political participation, civil liberties and life satisfaction this year compared to 2014.

But the situation for Israeli Arabs continues to be precarious.

In the last election in March, voter turnout was higher than it had been in 16 years, with a 71.8% citizens going to the polls. And while the Arab Coalition gained three parliament seats, Netanyahu’s nationalist right-wing Likud party gained 10.

The legislative bodies in Israel continue to discriminate against Arab citizens, despite some Arab representation in the Knesset. MK Haneen Zoabi, a Palestinian woman from Nazareth, is currently being investigated for “incitement.” Netanyahu considers Zoabi’s comments opaquely agreeing with the need for another intifada to be “incitement from within.”

Zoabi told reporters, “If individual attacks continue without national support, they will be extinguished within the next several days, and therefore hundreds of thousands are needed to start a real intifada.”

Yet there is no official outrage when Jewish Israeli lawmakers dehumanize Palestinians by calling them “snakes” and “terrorists.”

IDI President Yohanan Plesner stated the poll results “reveal the deepening divide between Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens. Apparently, support for the value of equality is limited in Israel and only declarative. Too many Jewish Israeli citizens prefer to prevent the integration of Arab citizens in areas where they could play a role in helping to make decisions for the nation.”

Pollsters at IDI conducted interviews of the Jewish sample by telephone between 13 April and 10 May, 2015 and the Arab sample between 29 April and 10 May, 2015. The sample consisted of 1,019 participants, 856 self-defining as “Jews” or “others” and 163 as “Arabs.”