Fact-check: Haley on sentiment toward Hamas among young people
As she called for a ban on TikTok, Haley said, “We now know that 50% of adults 18-to-25 think that Hamas was warranted in what they did with Israel. That’s a problem.”
When PolitiFact checked the polls in early November, we found a Harvard-Harris survey that found 48% of American 18-to-24 year olds said they sided with Hamas after the Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel that Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people.
However, that poll was based on a subsample of 199 people with a large margin of error.
The responses to other questions were also inconsistent with that view. Respondents in the subgroup said, by 2-1 margins, that Hamas’ Oct. 7 action "was a terrorist attack"; that the attacks "were genocidal in nature"; that Israel has "a responsibility" to retaliate "against Hamas terrorists"; and that Hamas "is a terror group that rules Gaza with force and fear and is not supported by them."
Three other polls found lower rates of support for Hamas, we reported.
-Analysis by Katie Sanders of PolitiFact