Americans more sympathetic to Palestinians than Israelis for first time in Gallup poll

More Americans are sympathetic to Palestinians than to Israelis for the first time since Gallup began tracking the question in 2001, according to a survey that the polling group released on Friday.

From 2001 to 2025, Israelis consistently enjoyed double-digit leads over the Palestinians in the reported sympathies of American adults.

In the latest Gallup poll, 41% of Americans answered “Palestinians” to the question, “In the Middle East situation, are your sympathies more with the Israelis or more with the Palestinians?” Just 36% say their sympathies are more with Israelis, a 22 percentage point decline from Gallup’s February 2023 poll before the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

Gallup surveyed 1,001 U.S. adults from Feb. 2-16, 2026, with a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points.

In line with other polling in recent years on similarly phrased questions, Gallup found strong partisan and generational differences in how Americans view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Democrats and Americans aged 18-34 are the most likely to report being more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israel, with Palestinians beating Israelis in sympathy among Democrats by 48 percentage points and among young adults by 30.

Support for Israel has declined substantially among all age groups and among independents since before Oct. 7. Support for Israel has also lessened among Republicans in the last three years, although they remain far more likely to report supporting Israel (70%) than the Palestinians (13%).

While Democrats and young Americans have been trending away from support for Israelis and towards Palestinians for about a decade, Gallup describes the attitude among Americans aged 35 to 54 as having shifted “decisively” in the past year.

“In 2026, 46% say they sympathize more with the Palestinians, compared with 28% who sympathize more with the Israelis,” Gallup writes. “This is a near reversal of opinion among this age group compared with 2025, when 45% gave more sympathy to the Israelis and 33% to the Palestinians.”

The Gallup survey also records a 23-year high for the number of Americans who say they support the creation of a Palestinian state, with 57% of Americans in favor and 28% opposed.

The question frames the creation of such a state as being “on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” which Gallup describes as support for a two-state solution. The pollsters note that U.S. adults are much more likely to favor a two-state solution than either Israelis (27%) or Palestinians (33%).

When described as countries, more Americans report having a favorable view of Israel (46%) than of the Palestinian Territories (37%). Those figures represent a substantial decline from favorability ratings for Israel of around 70% in the early 2020s and a more-than-doubling of the favorability for the Palestinian Territories from two years ago, when it stood at just 18%.

© JNS