One in 10 young people in UK sympathetic to Hamas – poll

An astounding 16% of a small representative number of young British adults believe the attacks carried out by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, were justified, with 9% of 18-24-year-olds polled holding a ‘favorable view’ of the proscribed terrorist organization.

The findings are according to a YouGov poll commissioned by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), a UK-based charity that has seen racism soar since the Hamas massacre last year. In early August, YouGov interviewed 2,615 representatives of all British adults, with a smaller segment constituting the younger age group.

More than one-eighth of the 18-24-year-olds polled (13%) do not believe reports that Hamas killed around 1,200 Israelis in the attacks, while a shocking 16% (a group of 7 young people) said they believed that the attacks carried out by Hamas on Oct.7 were justified.

An alarming 39% of British Gen Z (55 young people) polled indicated that the news reports about the Hamas invasion of Israel are not broadly true, compared with over half (55%) of the UK public at large believing the news reports.

“Extremism is becoming normalised in our country, and as ever Jews are the canaries in the coal mine,” said a spokesman for the CCA.

“Most alarming of all, our young people are becoming radicalised at a far greater rate than the rest of the population, sympathising with terrorists and espousing extreme anti-Jewish racism.

“If the authorities continue to let radicalism run rampant on campuses and on social media, it will not be long before we are looking over our shoulders at generation hate.”

“It is completely unacceptable for Jewish students to feel they cannot fully participate in university life out of fear for their safety. All students, regardless of race or religion, should be free to focus on their studies rather than worry about their safety.”

The poll also showed that one-third (33%) of the British public believes Israel treats Palestinians like the Nazis treated the Jews, a sentiment classified as antisemitic, according to the International Definition of Antisemitism. This figure is the highest recorded by the CAA in their polling and is even more pronounced among Gen Z respondents, where the figure rises to a shocking 48% – almost half.

Speaking to GB News on Oct. 7 of this year regarding the reasons for the unprecedented anti-Jewish sentiments in the United Kingdom, Vice Chairman of the UK’s National Jewish Assembly Laurence Julius said he believes the mainstream media, together with the non-regulation of social media, is to blame.

“They have a narrative. There have been tens of thousands of rockets fired into Israel [by Iranian proxies.] If you look at the media reporting, Israel is always shown as miitaristic with no victims,” he said. “While Palestinians it’s always humanitarian stories.”

“We were actually in Israel on October 7 [2023]. We felt the sense of helplessness and panic. Yet if you looked at the BBC, even then, the story was on demonstrations on the streets of London against Israel’s ‘revenge,’ which was still to come. 

The BBC, for example, has “nurtured this narrative,” Laurence said, and is “unsympathetic.”

“It is not impartial. Reporting is without context, and that’s a real pity.” Laurence also said online media, where many young people go for their news intake, has been “full of hate and incitement.”

“[The level of antisemitism] has really affected your ability to live a normal Jewish life in Britain today,” he added.

The poll results came as the British government announced its decision to allocate £7 million ($9.08 million) in funding “to tackle antisemitism in schools, colleges and universities.”

Quoting UK Community Security Trust figures, the UK government, which wanted to commemorate “the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history,” said that the financial “commitment comes after the number of incidents of antisemitic abuse nationwide more than doubled in the first five months of 2024, compared to the same period a year earlier. On university campuses, the number of incidents grew by 465%.”