A sweeping majority of Israelis believe corruption is a major problem in their country.
According to the Israel Democracy Institute’s annual “Democracy Index” released Wednesday, 60 percent of citizens believe the level of corruption in the Jewish state is “very high,” 30 percent believe it is “quite high,” and the rest believe there is either very little or no corruption.
The findings appeared to reflect public discontent with graft and sleaze scandals that have bested Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his government.
Asked to rank national institutions which best safeguard Israeli democracy, 36 percent said the media, 35 percent said the Supreme Court, 16 percent said the Knesset and 13 percent said the prime minister.
But there was a significant rise in trust for the presidency, which Shimon Peres assumed last year after Moshe Katsav stepped down in a sex scandal. Asked if they trust the president, 47 percent of the Democracy Index’s respondents said yes, compared to 22 percent last year.
Some 1,201 respondents took part in the survey in Hebrew, Arabic or Russian. The margin of error is 2.8%.
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