Gaza war: US Muslims & Jews face severe discrimination: report

Chicago: A survey in the United States inferred that there is a surge in discrimination against Muslims and Jews in the country. The survey, published this week, was conducted by the PEW Research Centre in Washington after its study on Americans’ attitude toward the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Arab News reported.

The study showed that when younger Americans sympathised with Palestine, the older sympathised with the Israeli government.

Associate Director of PEW, Laura Silver, said that the two studies found that war in Gaza had not only fuelled anti-semitism and Islamophobia but increased tensions between Muslim and Jewish communities. This includes an increased trend of blocking and unfriending on social media.

Americans who believe that Jews face a lot of discrimination has doubled from the percentage it was in 2021. This was 20 per cent in 2021 and 40 per cent in the latest report. There also is an increase in the percentage of Americans who believe Muslims face a lot of discrimination, a 5 per cent increase from 39 per cent to 44, Silver told Arab News.

Further, 70 per cent of Muslims and 90 per cent of Jews say that they have faced discrimination since the start of the war in Gaza last October.

Silver said that Americans largely believe that speeches which suggest that Israel has no right to exist as a Jewish state and that Palestinians must not have their own state must be allowed even if it offends others. However, the vast majority of Americans believe that violence must not be allowed against Muslims or Jews.

The survey also analysed comments on social media about the Israel-Hamas war and found that the masses in the US, particularly Jews or Muslims, get offended by something they see on the news or social media. The percentage of Muslims and Jews in this aspect is 60 and 74, respectively.

Further, around 25 per cent of Jews and Muslims severed contact with the others over something they said about the war, which angered them, Silver said.

The study says that news of the war makes Jews and Muslims feel more afraid, sad, angry and exhausted. A large share of both communities feel more afraid when they hear news about the war than the general public.

Americans are less supportive of supplying weapons to Israel, while more of them support supplying humanitarian aid to Gaza.