More Democrats sympathize with Palestinians than Israelis for first time: Gallup
More Democrats place their sympathies with Palestinians than Israelis in the Middle East for the first time, according to a new poll, as violence surges between the two parties to start the year.
Forty-nine percent of Democrats said their sympathies are more with Palestinians than Israelis, according to the Gallup survey released Thursday, while 38 percent said they place their sympathy more with Israelis.
It is the first time since Gallup started tracking the question in 2001 that more Democrats sympathize with Palestinians than Israelis, continuing a declining trend in Democratic attitudes toward Israel since the mid-2010s.
In addition to Democrats, sympathies for Palestinians from U.S. political independents is at an all-time high of 32 percent, though nearly half, 49 percent, still lean toward Israelis.
An overwhelming majority of Republicans back Israel, with 78 percent sympathizing with Israelis compared to 11 percent for Palestinians, according to the poll of 1,008 adults, which has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
The decline in sympathy for Israel from Democrats comes as some of the loudest voices in the party have publicly criticized the Israeli government on a number of fronts, ranging from their treatment of Palestinians to some domestic policies being pursued by its right-wing government.
The last year has been one of the bloodiest periods in recent history between Israelis and Palestinians. Clashes in the West Bank and parts of Israel saw 2022 become the deadliest year in the conflict since at least 2005 when the United Nations started tracking fatalities, the organization said, with more than 150 Palestinians and 20 Israelis dead.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the longest-serving leader of the country, came back into power last December with a far-right coalition in parliament. Biden administration officials, including the president himself, have pushed back against a slate of judicial reforms that Netanyahu and his allies are pursuing that would give the legislature more power over the judiciary.
“The genius of American democracy and Israeli democracy is that they are both built on strong institutions, on checks and balances, on an independent judiciary,” President Biden told The New York Times last month. “Building consensus for fundamental changes is really important to ensure that the people buy into them so they can be sustained.”
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