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Majority of Young Americans Want Israel Gone: Poll

Israeli flag March Takes Place During Jerusalem Day
(Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)
December 18, 2023

A majority of young Americans want Israel to no longer exist and its land given to Hamas and the Palestinians, a poll released Friday found.

Fifty-one percent of voters aged 18-24 prefer Israel to be "ended" and turned over to the terror group and the Palestinians, according to a poll of 2,034 registered voters from Harvard University and the Harris Poll. That was compared with 32 percent who wanted a two-state solution and 17 percent who wanted surrounding Arab states to "absorb the Palestinians." Additionally, 67 percent of voters in that age group favored an unconditional ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war without any requirement that all hostages be released or Hamas give up power.

Sixty-six percent of young voters in the poll said they believed Hamas's Oct. 7 attacks were "genocidal in nature," and 58 percent said Hamas would like to commit genocide against Israeli Jews. Sixty percent, however, said Hamas's Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,200 Israelis "can be justified by the grievances of Palestinians." Young voters were also split down the middle in terms of whether they supported Israel or Hamas in the war.

The poll showed traces of support for the Jewish state among the young respondents, seemingly contradicting results that showed sympathy toward Hamas. Sixty-nine percent of young voters said Israel has a "right to exist as the homeland of the Jewish people," and 58 percent said Hamas should be "removed from running Gaza." Forty-five percent said that, if Hamas is removed, Israel should administer Gaza, compared with 41 percent who favored the Palestinian Authority for that role and 14 percent who favored "some new authority set up through negotiations with Arab nations."

Still, 67 percent of young respondents said Jews "as a class are oppressors and should be treated as oppressors," and 79 percent said that white people are oppressors.

The Harvard-Harris poll comes a week after one from the Economist and YouGov found that 20 percent of Americans aged 18-29 said the Holocaust is a myth, and 28 percent said "Jews wield too much power in America."