Poll: Majority Favor Annexation of Gush Etzion

Sixty-seven percent of Israelis support implementing Israeli law in the settlement blocs, a new poll by the Smith Organization shows. The poll was taken on January 1st, after statements by sources close to now-President Trump supporting Israeli settlement in Yehudah and Shomron.

Most “popular” for annexation is the Gush Etzion bloc, which 73 percent of Israelis said should become an official part of the state. No less than 25 percent of poll respondents who identified themselves as Zionist Camp and Meretz voters supported such a move as well. Among religious and chareidi voters, 95 percent supported imposing Israeli sovereignty on the area. Among those who identified themselves as traditional, 78 percent said they would support the move, while 50 percent of those calling themselves secular supported it as well.

Gush Etzion was the site of several Israeli settlements going back to the 1930s which were abandoned only in the War of Independence, when the Jordanian army occupied the area. The settlements in Gush Etzion were among the first to be established after Yehudah and Shomron were liberated by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

In addition, the poll showed that more than two thirds of Israelis supported imposing Israeli rule on all the settlement blocs.

Moshe Svill, deputy chairman of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, said that the region was “looking forward to the administration of President Trump. We are waiting for the approval of 2,700 housing permits, and we are hopeful that the entry of President Trump into the White House will reduce the government’s level of fear to approve these permits.”