A new poll shows that Americans are more supportive of the Palestinians than they have been since at least 2017 and that Democrats are more pro-Palestinian than at any time in the past seven years.
The survey, which was carried out by The Economist and YouGov, found that 21% of Americans say they sympathize more with the Palestinians than with the Israelis. That’s less than the 31% who say they sympathize with the Israelis, and the 23% who say they sympathize with both sides equally.
However, it’s the largest share of Palestinian support that Economist / YouGov has encountered after 7 years of asking Americans the same question.
The poll also looks at support among Democrats and Republicans specifically. While Republican support for Israel remains high, 35% of Democrats say they sympathize more with the Palestinians, and only 9% say they sympathize more with the Israelis. 32% say they sympathize with both sides equally.
These numbers indicate that support for Israel among Democratic voters has largely eroded since the October 7 Hamas attack. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, 34% of Democrats said they sympathized more with Israelis and 16% said they sympathized more with the Palestinians.
“In the seven-year history of Economist / YouGov polling on this question, Democratic sympathies for the Palestinians have never been this high relative to the share of Democrats who say they sympathize about equally with both sides, which has tended to be the largest group of Democrats,” reads the report.
These numbers won’t come as a shock to anyone who has been following related polling in recent years.
A 2023 University of Maryland poll found that 44% of Democratic voters believe Israel is a “state with segregation similar to apartheid,” and 41% support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. A Gallup poll from the same year found that 56% of Democrats viewed Israel favorably, down from 63% in 2022.
The new Economist / YouGov poll also found little support for President Donald Trump’s plan to take over Gaza and displace the Palestinian population.
Only 19% of Americans strongly or somewhat support the proposal to take over Gaza, including 6% of Democrats and 39% of Republicans. 54% oppose the plan, including 74% of Democrats and 33% of Republicans.
There is even less support for the administration’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza. 44% of Americans support the move, while just 21% back the proposal. About one-third (34%) of Americans believe that moving all the Palestinians out of Gaza amounts to genocide.
Re the shifting perception of Israel, this is a 20 minute interview with Nathan Thrall in Al Jazeera:
“Nathan Thrall confronts Israel’s occupation”
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/centre-stage/2025/2/12/cs-nathan-thrall-full-110225
Around 16 minutes in Thrall begins to talk about the shift in public perception – it’s worth listening to. But Thrall emphasizes that it may take a few years and a generational change for the shift to be complete.