A new poll indicates that 60% of American voters want organizations that support Hamas to be investigated, and four in five agree that the Palestinian group is a terrorist organization.
The Rasmussen poll, conducted October 23-25 among 888 likely voters, found that 78% of respondents answered “yes” when asked: “Should the Palestinian group Hamas be considered a terrorist organization?” Only 8% said “no,” and 15% said “not sure.”
When asked, “Should American organizations that support Hamas be investigated by federal authorities?”, 60% said yes, 19% said no, and 21% were not sure.
Both questions are relevant in current political debate. The Associated Press stylebook discourages the use of the words “terror” and “terrorism” to describe Hamas and its murder of more than 1,200 people in Israel Oct. 7: “[T]he AP is not using the terms for specific actions or groups, other than in direct quotations or when attributed to authorities or others.”
In a similar vein, staff of the University of California ethnic studies departments scolded administrators for using the word “terrorism” to describe Hamas and its atrocities, claiming that using such language “has made Palestinian students and community members unsafe.”
But 78% of likely voters — including 85% of Republicans and 70% of Democrats — believe “terrorist” is the right word.
As for investigating groups that support terror, the issue has arisen because most of the pro-Palestinian protests that erupted after the Oct. 7 attack — long before Israel had mounted any significant response — celebrated the attacks. One “Free Palestine” rally in Dearborn, Michigan, defended Hamas explicitly. And “Students for Justice in Palestine” (SJP) embraced the image of Hamas paragliders — who descended on Israeli towns and a music festival and proceeded to kill as many people as they could.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) — who had a strong pro-Israel reputation long before he ran for president — announced that state universities would ban SJP from campus because of its support for Hamas.
Some 70% of Republicans believe such groups should be investigated. A majority of Democrats — 53% — agrees.
The poll has a margin of error of 3% with a 95% level of confidence.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated to reflect a revised number on the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel. The Israeli government estimate of 1,400 was revised to around 1,200, according to Reuters.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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