Nearly 80 percent of Britons see Israel as a threat to world peace

Nearly four in five Britons see Israel as a serious threat to world peace, according to a survey published last week by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen). The figure rose from 48 percent in 2005 to 78 percent this spring, two-and-a-half years into the genocide in Gaza and just after Israel and the US had attacked Iran . In July, a YouGov opinion poll commissioned by the Council for British-Arab Understanding found that only 17 percent of the British population believes that Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza.

The war on Iran has hit the UK economy, leaving households paying more for energy, food and mortgages. The rising bills have brought the cost of Israel’s wars in the Middle East home to British households. Last week, the Bank of England raised its base rate from 3.75 percent to 4 percent, its first increase in more than three years. The rise pushes up payments for borrowers on mortgages and adds to the cost of taking out or renewing a home loan.

New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Before the war with Iran started, economists had expected rates to fall. British attitudes towards Israel have shifted sharply over the past three years. By autumn 2024, a year into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, 73 percent of Britons saw Israel as a serious threat to world peace. Israel has killed at least 74,643 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 22,000 children, and wounded 175,962.

Around 10,000 more are missing and most are presumed dead under the rubble. Since the so-called ceasefire on 11 October last year, Israel has killed 1,613 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded more than 5,833 people. More than 4,000 Lebanese were killed in Israel's offensive against Hezbollah earlier this year. British views of the US have also soured. Some 74 percent of Britons now regard the US as a serious threat to world peace. NatCen, the largest social research institute in the UK, found that “following the bitter public disputes with Nato allies over Greenland, and the decision in February 2026 to, alongside Israel, embark on a bombing campaign in Iran, the proportion of Britons who saw the United States as a threat to global peace rose again, to 74 percent.”

UK government facing legal challenge over IHRA antisemitism definition in schools Read More » In 1994, under President Bill Clinton, 22 percent of Britons saw the US as a serious threat. By 2005, two years after President George W Bush led the illegal invasion of Iraq, that figure had risen to 47 percent. “However, that a clear majority of the population have come to regard Britain’s most important ally in the post-war international order as a threat to global peace is undoubtedly novel,” the report said.

The findings come from the annual British Social Attitudes survey, the UK’s longest-running survey of social and political attitudes. NatCen has conducted it since 1983. The survey found that 89 percent of Britons see Russia as a serious threat to world peace, compared with 62 percent who say the same of China. Around 75 percent of Britons view Iran as a threat, up from 67 percent in the spring of last year. The report said that “the country has moved psychologically from a post-Cold War society at peace, to one that has come to accept permanent geopolitical competition as the new strategic reality”.

That shift comes amid an ongoing war in Europe, Israeli threats to the Middle East, growing competition between the West and China, and an increasingly belligerent US. Copyright © 2014 - 2026 . Middle East Eye. All rights reserved. Only England and Wales jurisdiction apply in all legal matters. Middle East Eye ISSN 2634-2456