‘Israel’ ‘is an apartheid state,’ a quarter of U.S. Jews agree, poll shows

Washington (QNN)- A sizable minority of U.S. Jews believe some of the harshest criticisms of ‘Israel’, including that it is committing genocide and apartheid, a new survey shows.

The survey was commissioned by the Jewish Electorate Institute, a group led by prominent Jewish Democrats, and released on Tuesday.

Among respondents to the survey 34% agreed that “Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is similar to racism in the United States,” 25% agreed that “Israel is an apartheid state” and 22% agreed that “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians.”

The survey found that 9% of voters agreed with the statement, “Israel doesn’t have a right to exist.” But among voters under 40, that proportion was 20%.

A third of younger voters agreed that ‘Israel’ is committing genocide, a position that even human rights lawyers who are critical of ‘Israel’ say is extreme; more than a third agreed that ‘Israel’ is an apartheid state.

The survey also shows that many American Jews agree with statements by some of Israel’s harshest critics on the left made during the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip in May, including in some cases by a handful of Democratic members of Congress who were then criticized by their colleagues.

Of the four statements, only in one case, did a majority — 67% — agree that it was antisemitic to say, “Israel doesn’t have a right to exist.”

For the other three questions, more respondents disagreed that the statement was antisemitic than agreed.

Asked if they felt emotionally attached to ‘Israel’, 62% of respondents to the Jewish Electorate Institute survey said they did and 38% said they did not, numbers that matched those in the Pew study of 4,700 American Jews released in May.

One statement in the survey, echoing a claim by former President Donald Trump, that “Jews who vote Democratic are disloyal to Israel” was also put forward to respondents to assess whether it is antisemitic; mainstream Jewish organizations have suggested that it is.

However, while a vast majority of respondents, 77%, disagreed with the statement, only 26% said they believed it is antisemitic.

Asked about the two-state solution, 61% of survey respondents said it was their preferred outcome. But 19% said they preferred annexation of the West Bank that would deny Palestinians the right to vote in national elections, while 20% said they preferred “establishing one state that is neither Jewish nor Palestinian” and encompassing ‘Israel’, the West Bank and Gaza.