Nearly 90% of people in Arab countries oppose normalization with Israel: Poll

An overwhelming majority of people across the Arab world oppose recognizing Israel and reject normalization of ties, according to a new regional opinion survey.

The Arab Opinion Index 2025, conducted by the Doha-based Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, found that 87% of respondents opposed their countries recognizing Israel, while just 6% said they supported such a move.

The survey results come despite the US-brokered Abraham Accords, under which several Arab states normalized relations with Israel in 2020.

Among the small minority who backed normalization, about half said it should occur only after the establishment of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state.

Libya and Jordan recorded the highest rates of rejection of recognizing Israel, at 96% and 95% respectively, followed by Kuwait at 94%, the occupied Palestinian territories at 91%, Lebanon at 89%, and Morocco and Qatar, also at 89%.

The results also revealed that respondents from the Persian Gulf and North African regions were among the most opposed to recognition.

The index noted significant changes in the positions of some countries, most notably Sudan, where the percentage of those supporting recognition of Israel fell to 7%, down from 13% to 23% between 2013 and 2022.

The percentage of supporters in Morocco also decreased from 20% in 2022, following the signing of the normalization agreement, to 6% in 2025. In contrast, the percentage of those rejecting recognition in Kuwait rose to 94%, compared to 85% in 2022.

Those opposed to recognition of Israel attributed their stance to the regime's colonial, apartheid, and expansionist nature, and its continued occupation of Palestinian territories, while cultural or religious justifications were largely absent from the arguments for rejection.

The report emphasized that these reasons reflect a consistent position in Arab public opinion, and that no fundamental shift in this direction is expected as long as Israel's colonial nature persists.

Iraqi govt. rejects any kind of normalization with Israeli regime

The Iraqi prime minister categorically dismisses the possibility of diplomatic relations with the Israeli regime, asserting that the notion of normalization is incompatible with its principles.

The Arab Opinion Index 2025 is the result of the ninth cycle of the periodic Arab Opinion Index survey. It was prepared over a year and carried out in the field between November 2024 to August 2025, in 15 Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, and Syria.

The survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with a sample of 40,130 respondents across these countries, making it the largest survey project ever carried out in the Arab region.

The opinion poll took more than 413,000 hours to complete and involved 1,000 researchers (half of whom were women), with field researchers traveling a total of over one million kilometers.

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