Making Australian Foreign Policy on Israel-Palestine: Media Coverage, Public Opinion and Interest Groups by Eulalia Han & Halim Rane

Author:Eulalia Han & Halim Rane [Han, Eulalia & Rane, Halim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, International Relations, General, Social Science, Islamic Studies
ISBN: 9780522867503
Google: 2vUOogEACAAJ
Goodreads: 30072688
Publisher: MUP Academic
Published: 2014-01-15T10:24:17+00:00

Chapter 3

Public Opinion

Although Australia has been involved with the Israel-Palestine conflict since the partition resolution of 1947, there has been no scholarly research on the relationship between public opinion and Australian foreign policy making concerning the issue. This chapter presents the findings of a national survey of Australian public opinion on the Israel-Palestine conflict and its resolution. These findings are examined in the context of the potential role of public opinion to influence foreign policy. The central aim is to identify the extent to which there is a correspondence between Australian’s policy and public opinion on Israel-Palestine. This study makes a significant contribution to the literature on the relationship between public opinion and foreign policy making by examining the potential for this important domestic factor to influence the policy making process.1

While Reich contends that Israel enjoys widespread support from Australians,2 Loewenstein observes that there are dissenting voices even among the Jewish community in Australia against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.3 To date, there have not been any in-depth scholarly analyses of Australian public opinion on the Israel-Palestine conflict. However, polls have been irregularly conducted over the past 60 years that do give us an indication of trends in Australian public opinion on the Israel-Palestine issue. In the 1940s, Australians were evenly divided on the UN plan to partition Palestine, and during the 1967 Six-Day War through to the 1973 war between Israel and its Arab neighbours, a large majority of Australians supported Israel.4 Support for Israel continued into the 1980s. A poll conducted by McNair Ingenuity Research shows that in 1981, 28 per cent of Australians sympathised with the Jewish community while only 4 per cent sympathised with the Arabs.5 It is noteworthy that during the 1980s, the Hawke Labor Government developed close ties between Australia and Israel;6 poll data indicates that this was consistent with public opinion.

However, support for Israel among Australians has declined significantly over the past decade. A 2006 poll conducted by McNair Ingenuity Research shows that 42 per cent of Australians believe that the Australian Government’s policy tends to support Israel over the Arab countries while 39 per cent believe that the Government has maintained an even-handed approach.7 Only 4 per cent of respondents believe that the Australian Government’s policy supports the Arab countries, over Israel. When asked if they are more sympathetic towards the Jewish people or Arabs, 67 per cent of Australians said that their sympathies are more or less equal, only 13 per cent responded that they were more sympathetic towards the Jewish people and 10 per cent of Australians said that they were more sympathetic towards the Arabs. This represents a 6-point increase in sympathy for Palestinians, a 15-point drop in sympathy for Israelis, and a 55-point increase in respondents who are equally sympathetic towards both sides over the 25-year period between the two McNair Ingenuity Research polls.

The latest poll by the BBC World Service found that negative views of Israel have increased globally.8 In Australia, negative views of Israel are up by seven points from the previous year to 65 per cent in 2012.

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