The majority of Russians are aware of the new round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, about a third are closely following what is happening. The majority of respondents do not support either side of the conflict. At the same time, Palestinians are sympathized with more often than Israel, although even 14-15 years ago, sympathies were distributed approximately equally. The respondents, as before, lay the main responsibility for instability in the Middle East mainly on the United States and its allies.
88% of Russians are aware of the new escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a third (32%) are closely following the developments. Older respondents (55 years and older) follow the developments most closely – 44% follow closely, 49% have heard something, but not in detail; as well as those who have relatives or friends in Israel (66% follow closely). In total, according to the survey, 7% of Russians have relatives or friends in Israel with whom they communicate.
Two-thirds of respondents (66%) are not ready to support either side in the conflict. 21% are more likely to sympathize with the Palestinians, even 15 years ago there were half as many. 6% of Russians say they sympathize with Israel, in recent years this number has halved.
Those who closely follow the developments are much more biased in their preferences (48% do not support either side, 41% sympathize with the Palestinians). In addition, older people as well as those who profess Islam are more sympathetic to the Palestinians (about 6% of all adhere to this religion in Russia).
People aged 25-39 (10%), those who do not consider themselves to be of any religion/atheists (11%) and those who have relatives/friends in Israel (21%) are more likely to speak about the sympathies of the Israeli side.
Most often, respondents noted that mainly the United States and NATO countries (45%) are responsible for what is happening, 12% blame Israel, 11% are sure that no one is specifically responsible for what is happening, Hamas/The Palestinian side is blamed by 8% of respondents. Previously, this question was asked with a pre-codifier, then the main responsibility, according to respondents, lay with the United States (20% in 2010, 26% in 2009, 29% in 2006), another 3% -6% blamed other Western/NATO countries.
METHODOLOGY
The all-Russian survey by the Levada Center was conducted October 19 – 25 2023, among a representative sample of all Russian urban and rural residents. The sample consisted of 1633 people aged 18 or older in 137 municipalities of 50 regions of the Russian Federation. The survey was conducted as a personal interview in respondents’ homes. The distribution of responses is given as a percentage of the total number of respondents.
The statistical error of these studies for a sample of 1600 people (with a probability of 0.95) does not exceed:
3.4% for indicators around 50%
2.9% for indicators around 25%/75%
2.0% for indicators around 10%/90%
1.5% for indicators around 5%/95%