Polling released Friday reveals that more Americans say they sympathize with Palestinians than they do with Israelis, a new statistic coming several months after Israel and Hamas struck a deal to pause their devastating war in the Gaza Strip.
Gallup found that 41 percent of Americans said they sympathize with the Palestinians compared with the 36 percent who said they sympathize with the Israelis. The polling firm noted that although this difference is not statistically significant, it contrasts with the lead Israelis have had in similar polls over the past 24 years.
Israelis consistently held a double-digit lead during that time, typically averaging a 43-point gap between 2001 and 2018. This started to narrow down in 2019, years before Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and shifted further during Israel’s sweeping military campaign in Gaza.
“The cumulative effect of gradual changes in U.S. attitudes since then has led to the Israelis no longer being viewed more sympathetically,” Gallup stated.
Gallup also found that 37 percent of Americans held a favorable view of the Palestinian territories, which is behind the 46 percent who viewed Israel favorably. Fifty-seven percent of Americans said they favor an independent Palestinian state, which comes close to the highest percentage on the subject that Gallup has measured.
Democrats’ views toward Palestinians have jumped since 2023, with 65 percent now sympathizing more with the Palestinians compared with 17 percent who said they sympathize with the Israelis.
Seven in 10 Republicans, however, told Gallup that they sympathize with the Israelis, while 13 percent said they sympathize with the Palestinians.
The poll comes just more than a week after President Trump held the first “Board of Peace” meeting with other world leaders tasked with overseeing the reconstruction of Gaza following two years of war. The board is the next step in Trump’s 20-point peace plan amid the fragile ceasefire, which requires Hamas to demilitarize and eventually allow a new governing body to lead the Gaza Strip.
“We will make Gaza very successful and safe and we are also going to maybe take it a step further, where we see hotspots around the world, we could probably do that very easily,” Trump said at the meeting.
The U.S. gave Hamas a 60-day period to disarm, Israeli Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs said last week. He warned that Israel will restart the war if Hamas does not meet the deadline.
The Gallup survey was conducted Sept. 2-16 and included 1,001 respondents. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.