Bethlehem /PNN/ 

A new survey by Gallup indicates more Democrat voters now sympathize with the Palestinians than Israel, for the first time since 2001, when the US-based institution started polling on the Palestine conflict.

For the poll, the respondents were asked, “In the Middle East situation, are your sympathies more with the Israelis or more with the Palestinians?”

Forty-nine percent said they sympathized more with Palestinians and 38 percent sympathized more with Israel.

The report by Gallup says there has been an 11-point increase over the past year in sympathy towards the Palestinians from those who voted Democrat.

Sympathy toward the Palestinians also hit a new high among political independents, with 32 percent sympathizing with the Palestinians.

But support for Israel among Republicans remains mostly unchanged, with 78 percent showing sympathy toward Israel compared to just 11 percent backing the Palestinians.

The poll shows that overall, "sympathy toward the Palestinians among US adults is at a new high of 31%."

The shift is largely driven by people in young generations, the poll says.

According to Gallup, the pattern of increasing support for the Palestinians has continued over the past five years.

The shift in US public opinion comes as Israel has escalated its violence against the Palestinians, with the regime last year killing the largest number of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip in decades.

The regime has committed acts of violence at a faster rate this year, killing 88 Palestinians so far, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The formation of the new Israeli cabinet led by Benjamin Netanyahu, seen as the most far-right in the regime’s history, is likely to make matters worse. Netanyahu’s cabinet has promised to expand the West Bank settlements.