Israelis from all walks of life are losing faith in law enforcement agencies as well as the judiciary, a study presented at the Haifa Conference on Politics and Arab Society in Israel, hosted earlier this week by the University of Haifa, has found.
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Professor Gideon Fishman and Prof. Arie Ratner, of the Department of Sociology at the University of Haifa, have been polling public confidence in the judiciary and law enforcement for 22 years, since 2000.
The index measures the levels of trust the Israeli public places in the police, the courts in general, and the Supreme Court on a scale of 1-10, with one signaling deep distrust and 10 expressing high confidence.
The data show that over the index's 22 years there has been a consistent drop in public confidence in law enforcement among both the Jewish and Arab public. While in 2000, 23% of Arab Israelis expressed great confidence in the police, only 18% said the same in 2022, and while 31% of Jewish Israelis had faith in law enforcement in 2000, only 22% said to in 2022.
In Jewish society, men were more distrusting of the police than women with only 24% of women and 19% of men expressing faith in law enforcement.
In Arab society, 19% of men express great trust in the police compared to 14% of women.
The public also showed great mistrust in the judiciary: In 2000, 46% of Arab Israelis said they had faith in the courts compared to only 30% in 2022. Among Jews, 59% has faith in the judiciary in 2000, while only 33% said as much in 2022.
Confidence in the Supreme Court has been massively eroded over the past two decades, the poll found. In 2000, 66% of Arab Israelis expressed great confidence in the Supreme Court, compared to 39% in 2022. Among Jews, 79% expresses faith in the Supreme Court in 2000 compared to 43% in 2022.
Gender-wise, more Jewish women (45%) express confidence in the Supreme Court compared to Jewish men (41%), while in Arab society the situation is reversed: more Arab men (40%) express great confidence in the Supreme Court compared to Arab women (34%).
"There's a process of convergence between the levels of trust of Jews and Arabs along the index's 22 years, but the results from both Jews and Arabs show that both are dissatisfied with law enforcement, with the decline in trust in the Jewish sector being steeper," Fishman said.
"The findings are very troubling," Ratner added. "Trust is vital for the functioning of systems and especially for the legal system. In our case, I don't want to think about where we would end up if we continue down this slippery slope."
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