Poll: Arabs in Israel want to stay put

HAIFA, Israel, June 23 (UPI) -- An overwhelming majority of Israel's Arab citizens said they would rather live in Israel than any other country, a university-conducted poll indicates.

Besides indicating 77 percent of Israel's Arab population would prefer Israel, the poll also found the majority of Israel's citizens -- 73 percent of the Jews and 94 percent of the Arabs -- want conditions under which Arabs and Jews have mutual respect and equal opportunities, Ynetnews reported.

The study, "Coexistence in Israel," was conducted by the John Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., with the assistance of researchers from Haifa University.

The study looked the relationship between Israel's Jewish and Arab populations on the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel. In all, 1,721 people were polled.

The study also indicated 68 percent of Jewish citizens support teaching conversational Arabic in Jewish schools and 69 percent of respondents said they believed contributing to coexistence is a personal responsibility.

Adi Eldar, chairman of the Israel Local Authorities Union, said the survey "strengthens our demand from the government for a budgetary equality between the Jewish and Arab sectors.