Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deeply unpopular among British Jews with more than three-quarters registering their disapproval of him in a new poll.

UK Jews took a bleaker view of Israel’s situation than Israelis themselves, according to the survey carried out during the summer by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

Only 11.5 per cent of the sample voiced approval for Netanyahu, compared to 76 per cent who were critical of him — over 61 per cent of were “strongly” disapproving. (A few, 5 per cent, said they didn’t know and 7.5 per cent were neutral).

In their analysis, JPR’s Dr Carli Lessof and Roy Shinar Cohen suggested that respondents were influenced by the belief that Israel had not done enough to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza and that Netanyahu was prioritising his self-interest over that of the state of Israel as a whole.

Jews who voted Conservative or Reform were more than “22 times more likely” to approve of Netanyahu as those who supported other UK parties.

While 44 per cent of the Strictly Orthodox sample recorded approval for Netanyahu, his support among Progressive Jews stood at only five per cent.

Netanyahu had an overall negative rating of 68 per cent among UK Jews — slightly better than the negative ratings for Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at 78 per cent and 77 per cent respectively.

Only Opposition leader Yair Lapid and former Deputy Prime Minister Benny Gantz enjoyed positive ratings, of 12 per cent and 10 per cent. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant had a negative rating of 12 per cent.

However, significant numbers of respondents either did not venture a view on politicians other than Netanyahu or said they didn’t know (amounting to 60 per cent on Gallant, 53 per cent on Lapid, 46 per cent on Gantz, 43 per cent on Smotrich and 37 per cent on Ben Gvir).

According to JPR, “right-leaning Jews were eleven times more likely to approve of Smotrich than those who were left-leaning”.

Netanyahu’s reputation has further deteriorated among British Jews, who gave the Israeli leader a 64 per cent negativing rating in a JPR poll last year.

According to the new survey, 74 per cent of UK Jews thought Israel’s situation as bad or very bad, compared to 25 per cent who thought it good or very good.

Israelis were a little less gloomy, 64 per cent viewing their situation as bad or very bad.

UK Jews on the political right were” more than six times as likely than those who lean to the political left to have a favourable view of the situation in Israel, and men are three times as likely as women to have a positive view,” JPR noted.

“People who identify as Zionist and Strictly Orthodox people are also more likely than other groups to do so. Conversely, certain groups are more likely to identify Israel’s situation as bad than others, including those who have a political leaning to the left, women, those belonging to Progressive synagogues and older people.”

More information on the impact of October 7 on UK Jews is set to be released by JPR in coming weeks.

Its executive director Dr Jonathan Boyd said, “In many respects, we can see that they feel closer to Israel now than they did before October 7. Still, as this report demonstrates, we are also seeing high levels of disapproval for Prime Minister Netanyahu and even higher levels for the hard-right members of his coalition, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.

“As much as Israel matters to British Jews, many are expressing clear concern about its current political leadership. This dissonance is fundamental to understand from a policy perspective – it hints at the evolving nature of British Jewry’s relationship with Israel.”