Poll: Majority of Israel's Jews back gag on rights groups

More than half of Jewish Israelis think human rights organizations that expose immoral behavior by Israel should not be allowed to operate freely, and think there is too much freedom of expression here, a recent survey found. The survey, commissioned by the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at Tel Aviv University, will be presented Wednesday at a conference on the limits of freedom of expression. The pollsters surveyed 500 Jewish Israelis who can be considered a representative sample of the adult Jewish population. They found that 57.6 percent of the respondents agreed that human rights organizations that expose immoral conduct by Israel should not be allowed to operate freely. The poll also found that most of the respondents support punishing journalists who report news that reflects badly on the actions of the defense establishment.