By Samir Abul Haija

Israel's former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been declared to be the country's "most corrupt", followed by the current occupant of the hot seat, Benjamin Netanyahu. This was the finding of a recent opinion poll conducted by Haifa University, which suggests that Israel is gripped by the worst official corruption it has ever experienced.

The survey was conducted by Dr Doron Navot and Dr Dafna Qonti who worked with a sample of 804 people representative of Israeli society. The results of the poll were presented at an "Israeli Democracy in Crisis Conference" held on 18th March at the University. According to the poll, Olmert is the most corrupt public official in the history of Israel, a view supported by 52 % of those interviewed. Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, received 17.8% of the votes, Ariel Sharon 17% and the late Yitzhak Rabin 8.3%.

Although some respondents felt that the Olmert and Netanyahu governments were equally corrupt, almost a third believe that Olmert's is the worst.
Dr Navot said that there is a corruption problem in the country and this is indicative of the depth of a crisis in trust within the government and evidence of a media agenda to undermine democracy.

Source: PLS48