A new global public opinion survey released by the Pew Research Center reveals a dramatic year-over-year surge in negative attitudes toward Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu across every major region of the world, including Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. The poll, which gathered responses from adults across 36 nations between February 8 and May 13 this year, found that clear majorities in 32 out of the 36 surveyed countries hold either somewhat or very unfavorable views of the Israeli state. Only four nations — India, Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya — recorded majority favorable opinions of Israel.
Aggregated data from the full survey set shows a median 67% of respondents globally hold unfavorable views of Israel, compared to just 25% who report a favorable opinion. The highest levels of disapproval were recorded in Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, the West Bank, and occupied East Jerusalem, with 97% of Turkish respondents and 83% of Japanese respondents holding unfavorable views. Even in majority Anglophone nations long considered sympathetic to Israel, majorities now hold negative views: 60% in the United States, 65% in Canada, 79% in Australia, and 69% in the United Kingdom.
All ten European countries included in the survey also posted majority unfavorable ratings. Sweden and Spain tied for the highest share of negative views at 78% each, while Hungary recorded the most favorable views among European nations — even there, 54% of respondents held an unfavorable opinion of Israel.
Pew researchers and analysts link the sharp spike in negative attitudes to two ongoing conflicts: the long-running Israeli military campaign in Gaza that began in October 2023, and the more recent outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Iran that began on February 28 of this year, overlapping with the survey’s fieldwork period. The Iran conflict has had far-reaching global economic ripple effects, particularly after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — a critical global energy chokepoint through which roughly 20% of the world’s total oil supply passes. While global public opinion had already hardened against Israel over the Gaza campaign over the past three years, the escalation of hostilities with Iran triggered a significant new surge in negative views, researchers found.
The Gaza conflict, which has been labeled a genocide by hundreds of leading international scholars, major human rights organizations, and dozens of national political leaders, has already killed at least 73,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023, according to updated counts from local authorities. United Nations assessments estimate that Israeli bombardment has damaged or destroyed 81% of all residential and infrastructure structures across the Gaza Strip, with total reconstruction and recovery damages estimated at $18.5 billion. While last year’s Pew survey already recorded significant negative fallout from the Gaza campaign, the latest data shows a clear additional uptick in unfavorable views linked to the new conflict with Iran.
Across nearly all surveyed nations, the share of respondents holding unfavorable views rose between 7 and 10 percentage points year-over-year. South Korea recorded the largest single jump at 10 percentage points, while Nigeria saw a 9-point increase in negative views. Germany, Italy, Argentina, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States all recorded increases of between 7 and 9 percentage points.
The survey also identifies a clear ideological divide in attitudes toward Israel, particularly in high-income nations: respondents who identify with left-of-center political positions consistently hold more negative views of Israel than their right-of-center counterparts. This gap is widest in the United States, where 83% of self-identified liberals hold negative views of Israel, compared to just 37% of self-identified conservatives. Survey authors note that this ideological divide is far less consistent across middle-income countries.
Negative attitudes toward Israel are closely mirrored in global opinions of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Only two surveyed countries — the Philippines and Kenya — recorded majority confidence in Netanyahu’s ability to handle global affairs appropriately. In every other nation included in the poll, majorities reported little or no confidence in the Israeli leader. Just as with views of the country itself, the past year has seen a prominent increase in the share of global respondents who have lost confidence in Netanyahu’s leadership.