Latvian residents are currently more sympathetic towards the Israelis in the Middle East conflict, according to a survey conducted by the SKDS research agency in late November.
According to the poll conducted at end-November, 23 percent of Latvian residents sympathize with the Israelis in the conflict, while 6 percent sympathize with the Palestinians. At the same time, almost half or 48 percent have no sympathy for either side, 11 percent sympathize with both sides in the conflict, and 12 percent had no opinion on the matter.
SKDS has been conducting surveys with similar content since 2000 and in most cases respondents have always stressed that they do not support the positions of either side in the conflict, e.g. in 2015 68 percent of respondents indicated that they do not support either side, while in 2010 67 percent responded in this way.
Among those who take sides, sympathies have fluctuated over the years, e.g. in 2000, 16 percent of respondents sided with the Israelis and 12 percent with the Palestinians, while in 2015 the ratio was 8 percent to 4 percent. Support for Israelis was also higher than for Palestinians in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011.
At the same time, there have also been years when there were more supporters of the Palestinian position in Latvia than Israeli supporters, e.g. in 2006 and 2013, 10 percent of respondents in Latvia were on the Palestinian side, while 7 percent were on the Israeli side. In 2008 and 2010, however, support for both sides in Latvia was equal.
Source: BNS
(Reproduction of BNS information in mass media and other websites without written consent of BNS is prohibited.)