Conflict in Israel and Gaza: - Heightened feelings of insecurity

In our first one, entitled Conflict in Israel and Gaza: What do Jews in the UK think?,1 we examined the attitudes of Jewish people in the UK towards the conflict – in particular, whether respondents approved of the way Israel’s government acted during it, and the extent to which respondents believed the government to have been motivated by military or political considerations. [...] Why might we see a broader level of agreement on the first contention than the second? Arguably, the ‘test’ in the first contention – I felt I was being held responsible – sets a lower bar than the test in the second one: the criticism made me feel Jews are not welcome in the UK. [...] In terms of the second contention – Public and media criticism of Israel during the conflict made me feel Jews are not welcome in the UK – the two strongest predictors are the same as for the first contention. [...] The findings in this study should serve as a caution to the mainstream media and leaders in wider British society, as well as to the public at large, about the dangers of equivalising the actions of Israel’s government with Jewish people in the UK, especially when tensions flare up in the Middle East. [...] Page 13 of 17 Appendix – Summary of mean scores for each statement Because I am Jewish, Public and media The feelings of Jewish people in the UK regarding I felt I was being held criticism of Israel the May 2021 conflict in Israel and Gaza: summary responsible by non- during the of the mean scores for each statement and N Jews for the actions conflict made me N values (unweighted N=4,323) of Isr.