A recent poll of college students across America has found that nearly as many support Hamas as they do Israel while the war between the two continues to rage on.
The survey was conducted by Intelligent.com and included responses from 609 college students. The pollsters found that 22% of respondents sympathized with Hamas, while 26% sided with the Israeli government.
The survey asked students if they sympathized with Israeli civilians, Palestinian civilians, the Israeli government, and Hamas a little or a lot.
Hamas, a designated terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, now has almost the same amount of support from college students as Israel.
Overall, the survey found that 82% of respondents sympathize with Palestinian civilians, while 72% feel for civilians in Israel.
The findings come as protests supporting both sides have sprouted across the country, in public spaces and on college campuses.
Ten percent of respondents reported attending protests or rallies related to Israel and Hamas’ war. The survey also found that 45% feel pressure to take a stance or speak out, but 70% are worried about commenting on the war.
The war between Hamas and Israel began after the terrorist group launched a surprise attack on Oct. 7, killing nearly 1,200 people in Israel and taking hundreds hostage.
William Jacobson, a law professor at Cornell University, spoke with the New York Post about the survey, and he said that he wasn’t surprised by the support for Hamas amongst the college population.
“Hamas student support is a direct result of years of misleading and pervasively dehumanizing anti-Israel campus indoctrination by thousands of activist faculty and administrators under the banner of BDS [boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel]. Students do not hear both sides, they only hear that Jews are oppressors,” Jacobson said.
As for where students are learning about the conflict, 86% said on social media, 62% said news articles, 52% talking with others, and 17% said podcasts.
Additionally, a third of students reported not fact-checking information they see on social media. They also reported not checking for more information about the issues very often.
The survey was conducted from Oct. 27-31. There is a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.