Nearly One in Four Britons Want No Israeli Migrants, Poll Finds

Nearly one in four Britons now say the United Kingdom should allow no migrants from Israel at all, according to a new YouGov survey comparing public attitudes with those recorded a decade ago. The figure has risen from 16% in 2016 to 24% today, while 47% overall now want fewer or no Israeli migrants, up from 39%.

The shift stands out because British attitudes toward immigration overall have barely changed. Some 69% say immigration over the past decade has been too high, compared with 70% when YouGov asked the same question in 2016. The deterioration toward Israelis therefore does not appear to be part of a broader increase in anti-immigration sentiment.

The shift was concentrated in the strongest response. The share of Britons who said the UK should simply allow fewer Israelis stayed unchanged at 23%. But the share who said Britain should allow no Israeli migrants at all rose from 16% to 24%. Only Russia saw a bigger increase in opposition over the past decade, and Israel now has the third-highest “none at all” figure among the countries surveyed, behind Russia and Pakistan.

The political breakdown is even more striking. Green Party voters are the most welcoming toward immigration overall: only 40% say immigration has been too high, compared with 98% of Reform UK voters. Yet 51% of Green voters want fewer or no migrants from Israel, making Israel the country Green voters are most likely to want migration reduced from. That compares with 54% of Reform voters, 48% of Labour voters, 45% of Conservatives and 41% of Liberal Democrats.

The contrast becomes clearer when looking at those open to keeping Israeli migration at current levels or increasing it. Among Green voters, just 24% support the current number of Israeli migrants or more, compared with 51% who want fewer or none. Among Reform voters, 36% support the current level or more, while 54% want fewer or none. In other words, despite being far more pro-immigration overall, Green voters are actually more negative toward Israeli migration on this measure than Reform voters.

YouGov also found that most of the shift came from voters who backed Britain staying in the European Union in the 2016 Brexit referendum, a group that is generally younger, more urban and more supportive of immigration than those who voted to leave. Those voters have become noticeably more likely to want fewer or no migrants from Israel, while attitudes among the more immigration-skeptical Leave voters have barely changed.

That makes the result harder to explain as part of Britain’s normal immigration debate. The increased opposition to Israeli migrants is coming disproportionately from people who are usually more open to immigration, which supports YouGov’s suggestion that worsening attitudes toward Israel since the Gaza war may be affecting views of Israelis themselves.

Separate YouGov polling has shown that by October 2025, 12% of Britons said they sympathized more with Israel, compared with 38% who sympathized more with Palestinians.

The survey does not establish why individual respondents want fewer Israeli migrants, or prove that opposition to Israeli government policy directly caused the shift. But the decade-long comparison shows that Israelis themselves have become substantially less welcome as prospective migrants even as Britain’s overall level of opposition to immigration has remained almost unchanged.