Disturbing British poll: 23% say ‘Israel treats Palestinians like the Nazis treated Jews’

Only 20% of respondents disagreed, while 57% said they could neither agree nor disagree.

By Josh Plank, World Israel News

The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) on Sunday published its 2020 Antisemitism Barometer, an annual report on the prevalence of anti-Semitism in Britain, revealing some disturbing British attitudes towards Israel.

CAA commissioned King’s College London to survey British adults’ attitudes towards Jews in 2020. The survey consisted of 12 questions with which respondents could either agree, disagree, or neither agree nor disagree.

The survey found that over 10% of respondents agreed with four or more anti-Semitic statements, a result the CAA called “a very concerning reflection of the entrenchment of anti-Jewish racism among a segment of the British public.”

“The most popular anti-Semitic statement was that ‘Israel treats the Palestinians like the Nazis treated the Jews,’ with which 23% of British adults agreed. That view is anti-Semitic under the International Definition of Antisemitism adopted by the Government,” the report said.

On this same question, only 20% of respondents disagreed, while 57% said they could neither agree nor disagree.

While only 4% of respondents said that they were not open to having Jewish friends, 11% said that they were not comfortable spending time with people who openly support Israel.

“Other studies have noted that the overwhelming majority of British Jews support Israel. This suggests that many British people are not as comfortable with Jews as they like to think, or perhaps that they are willing to tolerate Jews only as long as they keep their opinions quiet,” the report said.

Only 31% of respondents said that they were comfortable spending time with people who openly support Israel, while 58% would neither agree nor disagree.

Just over half of the respondents agreed that “Israel has a right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people,” while 50% agreed that “Israel is right to defend itself against those who want to destroy it.”

“It is notable that almost half of respondents (43%) neither agree nor disagree that Israel — the world’s only Jewish state — is right to defend itself against those who want to destroy it. The implication is that, for these respondents, it is possible that Israel may be wrong to defend itself, and that those who want to destroy it may be justified in doing so,” the report said.

According to CAA’s report, 41% of British Jews have considered leaving the UK in the past two years due to anti-Semitism.