Ahead of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, eight-in-ten Israeli adults have an unfavorable view of the organization, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in early 2025. This includes around half of Israelis (51%) who have a very unfavorable view of the UN – by far the highest share expressing this view across all 25 countries we polled this year.
Israelis have consistently had a more unfavorable than favorable opinion of the UN. But their opinions have soured even more since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023. This year, only 16% of Israelis have a favorable view of the UN – the lowest level in surveys going back to 2007.
Research in the West Bank and Gaza
Pew Research Center has polled the Palestinian territories in previous years, but we were unable to conduct fieldwork in Gaza or the West Bank for our February-March 2025 survey due to security concerns. We are actively investigating possibilities for both qualitative and quantitative research on public opinion in the region.
There is also widespread skepticism in Israel about the UN’s role in working toward lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Roughly two-thirds of Israelis (66%) think the UN has been very or somewhat harmful to peace efforts.
The Center’s survey was conducted Feb. 5-March 11, 2025, among a nationally representative sample of 998 Israeli adults. It was fielded after Israel’s January 2025 ban of the UN Reliefs and Works Agency – the main UN aid agency in Gaza and the West Bank – but before several countries announced plans to recognize Palestinian statehood at this year’s UN General Assembly in New York.
Related: United Nations seen favorably by many across 25 countries
Views by ethnicity
Israeli Jews are more likely than Israeli Arabs to have an unfavorable view of the UN.
Roughly nine-in-ten Israeli Jews (89%) have a negative opinion of the UN. This is the highest share since at least 2007.
Israeli Arabs are divided: Half have an unfavorable view of the UN, and 45% see it favorably.
Views of the UN turned more negative among Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs alike in our 2024 survey, fielded several months after the Israel-Hamas war began. But while the share of Israeli Jews with a negative view of the UN is now at its highest recorded level, views among Israeli Arabs are roughly similar to what they were in 2022 and earlier.
Views by ideology
More than nine-in-ten Israelis on the ideological right have an unfavorable opinion of the UN, compared with 77% of those in the ideological center and 61% on the left. Around four-in-ten Israelis (38%) on the ideological left see the UN favorably.
Regardless of where they place themselves on the ideological spectrum, the share of Israelis with an unfavorable view of the UN has grown since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
For example, Israelis on the ideological left are now nearly twice as likely to have an unfavorable view of the UN as they were in spring 2023, our last survey before the Israel-Hamas war began (61% this year vs. 31% then). And Israelis on the right are 14 percentage points more likely to have an unfavorable view now than in 2023 (94% vs. 80%).
Most Israelis see the UN as harmful toward lasting peace
Overall, 66% of Israelis say the UN is harmful when it comes to working toward lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. This includes 44% who think the organization is very harmful in this respect.
Israeli Jews and Arabs differ sharply on this question. Eight-in-ten Jewish Israelis say the UN is harmful in working toward lasting peace, but just 13% of Arab Israelis agree.
There are again strong ideological differences on this question. Israelis on the ideological right are more than twice as likely as those on the left (83% vs. 30%) to say the UN is harmful to peace efforts. In fact, 62% of those on the right say the UN is very harmful to these efforts.
Additionally, Israelis who have a favorable view of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or of his Likud party are more likely than those who do not view Netanyahu or his party favorably to say the UN is harmful in the work toward lasting peace.
Related: Israeli Public Is Increasingly Skeptical About Lasting Peace
Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and the survey methodology.