Youth in Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt are generally in favor of their respective nations' normalization of relations with Israel, the 2023 Arab Youth Survey conducted by ASDA’A BCW, a public relations agency in Dubai, found.
The home countries of the survey’s respondents have signed the Abraham Accords, a series of joint normalization statements between Israel and other countries in the Middle East.
In Morocco, 50% of young Arabs “strongly support” or “somewhat support” relations with Israel, with the percentage among UAE and Egypt youth reaching 75%, and 73%, respectively.
In Bahrain, 53% of respondents said they “strongly oppose” or “somewhat oppose” normalizing relations with Israel.
Perception of Israel is still mostly negative across Arab world
Of the other 14 countries included in the survey, most saw a consensus in opposition, with respondents in Iraq and the Palestinian territories both being 100% opposed to closer connections with Israel.
Respondents from Saudi Arabia and North Africa were also strongly opposed to normalizing relations with Israel.
86% of survey participants believe that the Jewish state is an enemy to their own countries, showing that the perception of Israel among Arab youth is still overwhelmingly negative.
(…) The ASDA'A BCW #ArabYouthSurvey:The #US continues to be the most influential in the #MENA region, by far, ahead of the: #UAE, #KSA, #Israel and #Russia. #AYS #Survey #Dubai pic.twitter.com/aJ8NXztYO9
— Mazen HAYEK (@HayekMG) June 20, 2023
According to the results of the survey, young Arabs in North Africa do not believe that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be settled any time soon and only one-third of those surveyed think that the Arab world is giving the issue “adequate attention and focus”.
Throughout March and April, ASDA’A BCW conducted 3,600 interviews with Arab youth and young adults across 18 nations and 53 cities in the Middle East and North Africa. The Arab Youth Survey for this year gives a general overview of the “largest demographic in the Arab world.” The margin of error for the poll is 1.6%.