An extensive 9-country survey commissioned by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) in Israel, a German foundation and Think Tank, found that only 35% of Saudi Arabians support the Abraham Accords treaty signed by Israel, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain while 48% oppose it. 89% of Israelis support the Accords with 72% of Israeli Arabs expressing their support as well.
Alexander Brakel, Director, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) in Israel: “The recent developments between Israel and Saudi Arabia are exciting and our recent poll sheds light on the attitudes of Israelis and Saudi Arabians towards each other, the region, and specifically Iran.”
On the question of “Israel’s right to exist as the Nation State of the Jewish people only 24% of Saudi Arabians agreed with that statement while 62% opposed it. When asked about their impression of Israel only 23% of Saudi Arabians expressed a favorable view of Israelis with 65% expressing an unfavorable view of which 57% of those chose “very unfavorable.” Israelis have a better impression of the Saudi Arabians with 45% expressing a favorable impression of them and 43% unfavorable.
One thing that emerged very clearly from the survey was the strong support of the Saudi Arabians towards the creation of a Palestinian State and their favorable impression of the Palestinians – even though the Palestinians expressed unfavorable views towards them. 88% of Saudi Arabians agree that “there should be a Palestinian State” of which 78% “strongly agree.” 71% of Saudi Arabians expressed a favorable view towards the Palestinians while only 38% of West Bank Palestinians expressed a favorable view of the Saudis and 52% expressed unfavorable views of them. Only 35% of Israelis agreed that there should be a Palestinian State with 58% opposing it.
Mitchell Barak of KEEVOON Global Research who conducted the poll: “There is a lot of excitement in Israel for the warming of relations with Saudi Arabia but there is a long way to go for both sides until Israelis and Saudi Arabians feel comfortable with each other. This survey also shows that the issue of a Palestinian State is an important one for the Saudi Arabians and any future agreement with Israel will have to take that into account.”
Israelis and Saudi Arabians seem to share concern for Iran as a regional threat. When asked to rank “how great a threat to the region do you think Iran is” Israelis gave it a 7.4 while Saudi Arabians gave it a 6.8 on a scale of 1-10. 56% of Israelis and 46% of Saudi Arabians ranked it between 8-10.
The survey took place before the recent supposed visit of Prime Minister Netanyahu to Saudi Arabia. In total there were 589 respondent from Israel (503 in Hebrew, 86 in Arabic), 505 from Saudi Arabia, and 404 from the West Bank. The margin of error was 4.04%, 4.36%, and 4.88% respectively. The data was collected entirely on mobile telephones, in-APP. It was a representative sample in each of the countries where quotas were set for gender and age based on the census reports. Data collection took place between 18 October and 2 November. The was a screener for nationality on the Saudi Arabian survey to ensure that respondents were citizens.
For the full results of the survey
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