Israel is not well-liked across much of the world, but South Africans have a more favourable view of the country than people in Europe.

This is a finding from Pew Research, an American non-partisan think tank.

The survey was conducted between February and May this year, with Pew saying most interviews were conducted before the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran at the end of February.

It polled opinions on Israel among adults across 36 countries, with a median of 67% of people having an unfavourable view of the Jewish state, with 25% being favourable.

South Africa’s views are similar to the average global view: 58% of South Africans feel unfavourable towards Israel and 27% are favourable.

However, the proportion of South Africans who have unfavourable views of Israel is significantly below the proportion of Europeans who view Israel unfavourably.

The proportion of people who view Israel unfavourably in Europe is 78% in Sweden and Spain, 76% in the Netherlands, 75% in Italy, 73% in Germany, 69% in Britain, 68% in France, and 65% in Greece. Only Hungarians had a lower proportion of people who viewed Israel unfavourably than South Africans — 54% of Hungarians viewed Israel unfavourably.

And while the proportion of South Africans who viewed Israel favourably was relatively low at 27%, it was still higher than all the European countries surveyed, except two, Greece and Hungary. In Greece 30% of people viewed Israel favourably, and 32% of Hungarians also did.

The high proportion of people in Europe who view Israel unfavourably may be an indication of how the global anti-Israel lobby is winning the information war in Europe. It is likely that much anti-Israel sentiment has been propagated in the media in those countries, without any resistance to those views being aired to any significant degree.