Israelis give UN lowest approval rating in the world

Median approval of the UN across the 137 countries and territories surveyed was 50%, compared with 26% disapproval, producing a net approval score of +24.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

World leaders converge on New York this week for the UN General Assembly’s high-level General Debate as Israel records the lowest public approval of the United Nations of any country surveyed in a new Gallup poll.

According to a Gallup World Poll report released ahead of the session, 9% of Israelis approve of the UN’s job performance, while Israel’s net approval score — the percentage approving minus the percentage disapproving — was -61, the lowest among 137 countries and territories surveyed. Russia followed at -58 and Tunisia at -48.

Gallup conducted the surveys between March and December 2025, during the war with Hamas and amid continuing friction between Israel and UN bodies, including the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees.

UNRWA has been under fire for years, with Israeli officials demanding the agency be stripped of its authority in Gaza and defunded amid revelations that members of the agency’s staff participated in Hamas’s October 7 attacks.

Most recently, the US blacklisted three former UNRWA employees over ties to Hamas and Islamic Jihad in August.

Gallup’s findings underscored a wider regional divide. The Middle East and North Africa was the only region where disapproval of the UN outweighed approval, with a median net approval of -23. Israel’s score was substantially below that regional figure.

Among countries and territories where the UN maintains a substantial presence through peacekeeping, political missions or humanitarian operations, approval ranged from 70% in Kosovo to 9% in Israel, according to Gallup.

The polling organization noted that a UN presence in a country “does not translate into approval.”

Globally, the picture was more positive. Median approval of the UN across the 137 countries and territories surveyed was 50%, compared with 26% disapproval, producing a net approval score of +24.

Gallup said the UN’s median approval was higher than 2025 approval ratings for the leaderships of Germany, China, the United States and Russia, while cautioning that the two sets of questions are not directly comparable.

The UN is also preparing to select a new secretary-general. Gallup described the transition as an opportunity to “rebuild trust” and demonstrate the UN’s value to member states.

Portuguese diplomat Antonio Guterres is due to leave the post at the end of 2026.

Potential successors cited in reports include Costa Rican diplomat Rebeca Grynspan, Lana Nusseibeh, the United Arab Emirates’ former ambassador to the UN, and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

Against that backdrop, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive in the United States on Thursday to address the General Assembly before departing the same evening.

His speech is expected to focus on Iran. Netanyahu is also expected to meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, but not President Donald Trump, during the brief visit.

The Gallup findings are based on nationally representative telephone and face-to-face surveys of adults aged 15 and older, with roughly 1,000 respondents per country.

The reported margins of error ranged from 2.2 to 5.5 percentage points.