Whopping 76 Percent of Americans Support Police on College Campuses, 47 Percent Want Demonstrations Banned: New Poll

Seyma Bayram via AP

Morning Consult released a new poll this week of Americans’ attitudes related to the Israel-Hamas conflict and the ongoing demonstrations on campuses across the country.

The poll asked whether or not respondents would like to see universities and colleges take steps like “Ask the police to protect campuses from violence” and “Ban pro-Palestinian protests on campuses.”

A whopping 76 percent of respondents wanted campus leaders to ask police to protect students with Democrats (76%), Republicans (79%), and Independents (71%) all overwhelmingly supporting the request.

Morning Consult’s Eli Yokley wrote up the poll’s main takeaways and added, “Amid a wave of campus protests, more voters than not — 47% to 30% — believe colleges and universities should ban pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus, higher than the 41% who said the same of pro-Israeli demonstrations.” 59 percent of Republicans and 41 percent of Democrats wanted to see pro-Palestinian protests banned, while only 36 percent of Democrats and 22 percent of Republicans opposed such a move, with the rest being undecided.

The poll also asked if universities and colleges should “Make statements condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza,” with 33 percent agreeing they should and 42 percent opposing such moves – the rest were undecided. 46 percent of Democrats favored such statements while only 23 percent of Republicans said they were also in favor.

Yokley also noted that the poll found that “Less than 2 in 5 voters support universities divesting from Israeli companies or businesses that profit from the war. Support for divestment is highest among those with postgraduate degrees and those from the wealthiest households, the kinds of people often targeted by college donation requests.” He noted that the poll, which has been coming out monthly since the war started, also remained consistent in that a large majority of respondents showed “continued sympathy for both Israeli and Palestinian civilians, as well as high support for humanitarian relief for the war-torn people and a cease-fire.”

Read the full poll results here.

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