40 percent of Americans think that ‘Israel treats Palestinians like Nazis treated Jews’, according to the findings of an opinion survey conducted in the U.S.

Released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) last week, the survey goes further than ever in the effort by the Israel lobby to brand “highly negative” views of Israel as bigotry.

“Many Americans believe in Israel-oriented antisemitic positions – from 40 percent who at least slightly believe that Israel treats Palestinians like Nazis treated the Jews, to 18 percent who are uncomfortable spending time with a person who supports Israel,” the findings of the ADL survey read - a remarkable indication of Israel’s sinking reputation in the U.S.

Americans’ belief in antisemitic ideas of Jewish conspiratorial influence have doubled just in the last three years, the survey alleges, with a “surge” in antisemitic acts. But surprise– the ADL links that increase to Israel.

“There is a nearly 40 percent correlation between belief in anti-Jewish tropes and anti-Israel belief, meaning that a substantial number of people who believe anti-Jewish tropes also have negative attitudes toward Israel,” the survey findings read.

However, the ADL was criticized for combining polling about anti-Semitism with polling about Israel.

“It’s wildly irresponsible for the ADL to run together polling about antisemitism with polling about Israel,” Rafi Magarik says on twitter. “It is a brazen attempt to remove Israel’s behavior from the sphere of political debate, and to paint critics of Israel as Jew haters.”

“Since the creation of Zionism, millions of Jews were opposed to the creation of an explicitly Jewish state in historic Palestine,” Max Berger writes. “Were all of those Jews anti-semites?”

Human rights groups have increasingly called for international action to hold Israeli authorities accountable for committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians. Israel enforces a system of oppression and domination against the Palestinian people wherever it has control over their rights. This includes Palestinians living in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), as well as displaced refugees in other countries.