- A new Reuters/Ipsos poll has shown that 58% of Americans believe the US and all UN countries should recognise a Palestinian state.
- Some 65% of the poll respondents also said the U.S. should take action in Gaza to help people facing starvation.
A 6-day poll by Reuters/Ipsos that closed on Monday found that an all-time high of 58% of Americans believe the US and all other UN countries should recognise a Palestinian state.
The result varied among the political parties with 78% of Democrats supporting the idea, far more than the 41% of President Donald Trump‘s Republicans who had for a long time persisted in supporting Israel even after the genocide reached cataclysmic levels.
The poll was taken only weeks after Britain, France and Canada, three of the US’s closest allies had announced that they intend to recognise a Palestinian state.
Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid, receiving approximately $3.8 billion annually. After October 7, additional funding reportedly pushed U.S. support above $12 billion. Critics argue this has fuelled Israel’s expansion into Gaza, while U.S. policy statements have continued to back Israel.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll also showed that 59% of Americans believe Israel’s military response in Gaza has been excessive with only 33% saying they disagreed.
The United States has never officially recognised a Palestinian state and under Donald Trump’s decision in 2018 to move Israel’s embassy to Jerusalem, it has made it increasingly difficult to do so for the definition of a Palestinian state has become ever more unclear.
Some 65% of the Reuters/Ipsos poll respondents also said the U.S. should take action in Gaza to help people facing starvation.
Under the Israeli-US backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, supposedly designed to channel food to Gaza’s population, thousands have been killed while trying to attain food with countless injured.
The US strategy to solve the food issue was to centralise food distribution away from the 400 aid sites used by unarmed experienced charities on the ground to only four, hundreds of kilometres away from much of the Gaza population with reports of Israeli and US contractors shooting civilians.
The aid reaching civilians has been limited as a result and although recently more aid has been let in, there is still a great fear that the damage done to Gaza’s population may be irreversible.
The Reuters/Ipsos survey was conducted online and gathered responses from 4,446 US adults nationwide and is said to have a margin of error of about 2 percentage points.
