Over half of young Americans surveyed on Israel’s conflict with Hamas believe the Jewish state should no longer exist, and instead become Palestinian territory ruled by the Hamas terror group, according to a new online poll.
The monthly Harvard CAPS/Harris poll finds continuing support for Israel in its campaign against Hamas among every age demographic but 18- to 24-year olds.
Overall, the survey finds 81 percent of respondents back Israel. Among the youngest age bracket, though, that support is evenly split between Israel and Hamas.
On several questions, voters in that age group seem to express contradicting or muddled views. For instance, despite 51% wanting to see Israel replaced by a Hamas/Palestinian entity, 58% of respondents in the group think Hamas should be removed from running Gaza.
The survey finds 66% of respondents in the age group think the October 7 attacks constitute genocide. At the same time, 60% think that the attacks were justified by Palestinian grievances. The upshot: Many young people think genocide is justified.
Many also seem to be okay with hate speech at universities: According to the poll, 53% of young people think students should be free to call for Jewish genocide on campus, though 70% think such calls constitute hate speech.
And while 67% of 18-to 24-year olds think the presidents of Harvard, MIT and Penn universities went far enough in condemning antisemitism, when faced with comments they made during congressional testimony — that calls for Jewish genocide are only punishable depending on the context — 73% said they should resign.
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