Almost half of Brits equate Israel with the Nazis, new survey finds

CAA said comparing Israel’s actions to those of the Nazis was “one of the most common antisemitic tropes that we see,” the Telegraph reported.

“It both trivializes the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were industrially slaughtered, and insultingly accuses victims of the crime committed against them of perpetrating it,” the CAA said.

The study also found the number of British people holding antisemitic views had doubled in less than five years, to more than a fifth of the population.

More than one in five Britons now hold or agree with antisemitic views, the highest number since similar studies began 10 years ago. Twenty-one per cent of the British public agreed with four or more antisemitic statements, compared to 16 per cent last year and just 11 per cent in 2021.

The findings come ahead of a national march on Sunday afternoon by CAA and community groups to protest “bigots and extremists” targeting UK Jews.

The study also found that of 18- to 24-year-olds, nearly half (49 per cent) said they did not feel comfortable spending time around people who openly support Israel. Only 18 per cent said they did feel comfortable doing so.

More than half of Green Party voters (54 per cent) are uncomfortable spending time with people who openly support Israel. Among Labour voters, the figure was 33 per cent. At just seven per cent, Reform voters were the least likely to say they were uncomfortable spending time with supporters of Israel.

Of young voters, 31 per cent said that Israel has a right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people. Twenty per cent said it did not.

Fifty-eight per cent of young people said Israel and those who support it were a bad influence on British democracy. Among the general population, 29 per cent agreed with that statement.

Twenty-six per cent of the British public said that Israel could get away with whatever it wants because its supporters “control the media”. That figure was 18 per cent last year. Among young people, 42 per cent said Israel can get away with anything.

“Bearing in mind that the overwhelming majority of British Jews identify as Zionists and with the Jewish state, these attitudes among young Britons have enormous implications for young Jews on campus, on social media and starting out in the workplace,” CAA said.

The survey also showed support for Hamas, the proscribed terrorist group that runs Gaza and orchestrated the October 7 2023 attacks.

Ten per cent of young Britons have a “favorable view” of Hamas, with 14 per cent saying it is wrong to classify Hamas as a terrorist group, the survey found.

Nineteen per cent of young people said that the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 was justified.

Among Green Party voters, 15 per cent believe that the Hamas massacre was justified, the highest figure among party voting blocs.

The survey found division among Brits on the issue of anti-Israel or pro-Palestine marches.

While 29 per cent of the public view them positively, 32 per cent view them negatively. Most (69 per cent) believe they are achieving not very much or nothing at all, with only 13 per cent believing they are achieving something.

The study also found 10 per cent of Reform voters do not believe Jewish people are as loyal to the UK as other Brits and 24 per cent said they believed that Jewish people chased money more than other people do. These were higher figures than for voters of any other major party.

YouGov surveyed a representative sample of 2,245 British adults between September 1 and 2 2025 online for its study.