Reassessing the Czech Public Attitudes towards Israel and the Israel-Palestinian Conflict

Abstract

The Czech political elites have traditionally maintained an unwavering support for Israel, and it has been popularly assumed that this view is widely translated into the Czech public opinion. In this review essay, I contest this popular assumption and argue that the Czech public opinion is more nuanced and less uniformly pro-Israel than previously believed. Drawing on public opinion data and original surveys, this paper highlights that many Czechs adopt neutral or even maintain some pro-Palestinian stances in this regard despite a dominant pro-Israel media narrative and a unified political consensus. The empirical evidence confidently shows that there is a significant gap in public and elite attitudes towards Israel and Palestine. The Czech case thus goes against the theoretical assumption that an undivided elite discourse favoring a particular policy should translate into a general public support.