Half of Britons insist their country should allow in fewer Israelis or none at all. Survey results significantly more negative toward Israel than 10 years ago
Times of Israel
Half of Britons think the UK should allow fewer Israelis, or none at all, to migrate to the country, making them among the country’s most unwanted immigrants in a poll that asked about migrants from 23 countries.
According to the poll, just five percent of Britons think the UK should allow more Israelis to come to the country.
Twenty-three percent think Britain should allow fewer Israelis, and 24% none at all.
The same poll was previously conducted a decade ago, in 2016.
A decade ago, 36% of Britons said the UK should allow fewer or no Israelis, compared to 47% today. The drop comes amid a general surge in anti-Israel feeling across the world since the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught set off wars in Gaza and across the region.
Israelis came in 22nd out of 23rd in the survey, with Britons being most positive about immigrants from Ireland, a country from which only 12% of respondents want to reduce immigration.
The poll surveyed more than 2,053 adults in Great Britain on June 8-9 of this year. The margin of error was not immediately available. Additionally, some results in the survey added up to 99%, presumably as an artifact of rounding down.
There are few publicly available estimates of the number of Israelis in the UK. In 2011, there were approximately 25,000 Israelis living in Britain, according to Britain’s Institute for Jewish Policy Research.
The UK has seen a surge in anti-Israeli as well as antisemitic sentiment since the 2023 Hamas attack and subsequent Mideast wars.