Britons dislike Israel more than Iran according to new research | Surprise ?

Israel Prime Minister 

According to a UAE news website a survey conducted by think tank Chatham House on public attitudes towards other countries, 35 percent of Britons said they felt “especially unfavourably” towards Israel, an increase of 18 per cent since 2012, while people’s unfavourable feelings towards Iran dropped from 45 percent to 33 percent.

Britons dislike Israel more than Iran

The research, entitled ‘Internationalism or Isolationism? British attitudes towards the UK’s international priorities’ classed the top five least favourable nations as North Korea, Israel, Iran, Pakistan and Nigeria.

It was conducted during August 2014, which the researchers noted was at a time when “Israel was engaged in a military operation in Gaza against Hamas that caused large numbers of civilian casualties”. The researchers suggested the prominence of this news at the time contributed to the increase in unfavourable feelings towards Israel.

CNN’s international correspondent quit his long-standing job on the network after he appeared to suggest that "Israeli propaganda" had played a hand in the brutal Charlie Hebdo terror attacks, while in the Philippines anti-Charlie Hebdo protesters held up burned images of Netanyahu and the Israeli flag with the message “Zionist conspiracy”.

The results come at a time when there has been an increase in overt negativity towards Israel and the country’s president Benjamin Netanyahu.