Americans are significantly likelier (57%) to say that antisemitism has increased since Oct. 7 than Islamophobia (38%) and anti-Arab bias (36%), although younger U.S. adults are equally likely (47%) to say the three have experienced more hate since the start of the war.
That’s according to a new report from the Pew Research Center based on a survey of 12,693 U.S. adults conducted between Feb. 13 and 25 and oversampled for Jews (1,941) and Muslims (414).
Americans are twice as likely in 2024 (40%) to believe that Jews face a lot of discrimination as they were in 2021 (20%), while there is a smaller gap between those who said this year that Muslims face a lot of hate (44%) compared to 2021 (39%), according to the survey.
Most American Muslims (60%) said that U.S. President Joe Biden favors Israelis too much, and about the same number of U.S. Muslims had unfavorable views of Biden (63%) as former President Donald Trump (64%). Younger U.S. Jews, aged 18-34, were twice as likely (26%) as any other Jewish age group to say that Biden favors Israel too much.
U.S. Muslims also tended to have more favorable views of Hamas (37%) and the Palestinian Authority (59%) than the Israeli government (10%). Just 8% of U.S. adults had favorable views of Hamas, compared to the Palestinian Authority (23%) and the Israeli government (41%).
Few respondents said that calls for antisemitic (10%) and Islamophobic (11%) violence should be allowed, and similar percentages said that speech rejecting Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state (58%) and Palestinians having their own state (61%) should be permitted.
Most Jews (72%) and Muslims (67%) said that their own group is subject to a lot of discrimination, and although both were likelier to say that about their own group than the other, more Jews (57%) said Muslims experience a lot of hate than did Muslims (17%) about Jews.
“Compared with other age groups, Americans 65 and older are more likely to say there is a lot of discrimination against Jews in our society today,” per the survey. “Older Americans are far more likely to report an increase in discrimination against Jews than against Muslims or Arabs.”
“By contrast, Americans ages 18 to 29 are more likely to say that black, Muslim, Arab and Hispanic people experience a lot of discrimination than to say the same about Jews,” the survey adds.
Younger Americans were also less likely than their older peers to say in greater numbers in 2024 than in 2021 that Jews face a lot of hatred. In 2021, about the same percentage of younger adults (20%), those aged 30-49 (19%), 50-64 (21%) and 65-plus (21%) said that Jews face a lot of discrimination.
This year, younger adults were the least likely to say that Jews face a lot of hate (31%), followed by those aged 30-49 (34%), 50-64 (45%) and those 65-plus (50%).
“This has opened a sizable age gap in views of discrimination against Jews, which was not present in 2021,” per the survey.
There were also noted differences in the ways that those who sympathize with Israelis and Palestinians see anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim bias.
The overwhelming majority of those who sympathize entirely or mostly with Israelis (78%) said that discrimination against Jews has increased since Oct. 7. Smaller percentages of those who sympathize equally with Israelis and Palestinians (62%) and entirely or mostly with Palestinians (55%) said the same.
The numbers were different when it came to whether discrimination against Muslims has increased since the war began. Just 29% of those who sympathize entirely or mostly with Israelis said that, compared to 48% of those with equal sympathies and 66% who sympathized entirely or mostly with Palestinians.
Views on Israel also varied widely by faith group. Barely a majority (51%) of black Protestants and less than half (47% each) of Muslims and Hispanic Catholics said that speech supporting Israel’s right to exist ought to be permitted in public, even if it might offend others—something which 70% of respondents said should be allowed.
Less than half of black (48%), and Hispanic (46%) Protestants and Hispanic Catholics (48%), said that speech in favor of a Palestinian state should be permitted in public.
