Most Democrats favor sanctions on Israel, say Palestinians face genocide, poll says

A majority of Democrats believe Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza and support imposing sanctions on the Israeli government, according to a new poll.

In the survey — conducted by YouGov for the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, a pro-Palestinian nonprofit — one-third of Democrats also said U.S. policy toward Israel will play a role in their decisions at the ballot box in 2026 and that they favor reducing aid to the Middle Eastern nation.

“Democratic voters are saying clearly the time has come for comprehensive accountability measures against Israel,” Margaret DeReus, the group’s executive director, said in a news release. “Democratic Party leadership must finally recognize this undeniable reality and listen to their voter base, or they risk repeating their disastrous loss in 2024.”

It comes nearly two years into Israel’s war in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of more than 66,000 Palestinians, about half of whom are women and children, according to Gaza health officials. Many of the enclave’s 2.1 million inhabitants now face famine and starvation, due in part to Israeli restrictions on aid, according to the United Nations.

The conflict began in October 2023, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing around 1,200 Israelis, most of whom were civilians, and taking more than 200 hostage, according to U.S. officials.

The poll — which was also conducted for Gen-Z for Change, a left-leaning nonprofit — comes after President Donald Trump’s administration proposed a peace plan for Gaza. He has given Hamas until Oct. 5 to accept the deal, threatening “all HELL” will break loose if they do not agree to the terms.

Support for sanctions

In the poll — which sampled 1,221 likely Democratic primary voters Sept. 11-24 — 72% of Democrats said they believe Israel is perpetuating a genocide in Gaza.

Multiple human right organizations, including two Israel-based groups, have characterized the events in the Palestinian enclave as a genocide. Israeli officials have forcefully rejected this assertion, stating in July that Israel does not deliberately target civilians and dismissing human rights reports as “politically motivated.”

A smaller share of Democrats, 65%, said they favor imposing sanctions on the Israeli government.

The poll, which has a margin of error of 3 percentage points, also asked about specific sanctions, revealing strong support for all of them.

Seventy-six percent of Democrats said they support “a ban on extending credit to Israel through the purchase of Israel bonds,” and 75% said they’re in favor of blocking imports of Israeli cybersecurity software and weapons. Further, 62% said they support banning Israeli officials and soldiers from entering the U.S.

Similar measures were taken against apartheid South Africa through the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, enacted by Congress in 1986, the survey noted.

Israel and U.S. elections

Thirty-four percent of likely Democratic primary voters also said that American foreign policy toward Israel will play a role in their vote in the 2026 midterm elections and that they would like the U.S. to reduce support for Israel.

In contrast, just 6% said that U.S relations with Israel will factor into their vote and that they want to increase or maintain American support for Israel.

When asked to choose three top issues heading into next year’s election, 16% of Democrats said U.S. foreign policy toward Israel and that they seek a reduction in aid. Meanwhile, 3% said American relations with Israel was a top issue and that they want aid to remain at current levels or be increased.

Additionally, 65% of respondents said that, if they learned their representative in Congress voted in favor of sending weapons to Israel, this would make them less likely to support them in 2026.

In July, a record number of Senate Democrats voted for resolutions put forward by Sen. Bernie Sanders seeking to block weapons shipments to Israel.

This story was originally published October 3, 2025 at 11:13 AM with the headline "Most Democrats favor sanctions on Israel, say Palestinians face genocide, poll says."