Israel-Palestine war: 76 percent of Britons want an immediate ceasefire
Protesters in Whitehall during the Palestine solidarity march in London on 14 October 2023
Middle East Eye reports on 19 October 2023:
A fresh poll shows that 76 percent of adults in Great Britain think there should be a ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine war.
The United Kingdom, led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, has given the Israeli government its full backing for the bombardment of Gaza and has yet to call on any party to implement a ceasefire.
When asked, “From what you’ve read and heard, do you think there should or should not be an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Palestine?”, 58 percent answered that “there definitely should” with 18 percent saying that “there probably should”.
Only eight percent of respondents said there shouldn’t be a ceasefire with 16 percent saying they didn’t know.
The poll was conducted on 19 October by UK-based YouGov polling company and surveyed 2,685 adults.
Another YouGov poll from earlier this week asked Britons which side they supported in the Israel-Palestine conflict and found a slim margin among 2,574 adults with 21 percent saying they backed the “Israeli side” while 17 percent backed the “Palestinian side”. The highest support for Palestinians was in Scotland at 30 percent, with the highest support for Israelis coming from northern England. But most respondents chose not to explicitly choose a side as their government had, with 29 percent saying they support “both equally” and 39 percent saying they “don’t know”.
On 7 October, Palestinian fighters attacked southern Israel near the Gaza Strip. Around 1,400 Israelis were killed. Nine British nationals have been confirmed as killed during the attacks.
Relentless Israeli air strikes, meanwhile, have killed more than 3,800 Palestinians, including more than 1,500 children and 1,000 women. Around one million Palestinians have also been displaced and forced to take shelter in hospitals and schools as Israel tightens its siege of the enclave.
When the poll regarding a ceasefire was broken down by gender, a higher number of women, 81 percent, backed an immediate ceasefire compared with men at 71 percent.
Around 88 percent of those who affiliate themselves with the centre-left Labour Party want a ceasefire as do 73 percent of those who affiliate with the right-wing Conservative Party.
According to the poll, the older the respondent, the more likely they were to want an immediate ceasefire.
Divergence
The polls represent a fairly large divergence between the British public, its government and even other political parties not in government.
Sunak is currently in Saudi Arabia after making a visit to Israel where he said Britain would “stand with you in solidarity, we will stand with your people and we also want you to win”.