A large majority of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, along with more than half of Israelis, say they do not believe Israel and an independent Palestinian state can coexist peacefully, according to newly released Pew Research Center findings that illustrate how far public confidence in a negotiated two-state outcome has eroded.

Pew found that 17% of adults surveyed in Israel said peaceful coexistence between Israel and an independent Palestinian state could be achieved, while 56% said it could not. Among Palestinians surveyed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, 21% said coexistence was possible and 68% said it was not. The Palestinian results do not represent residents of Gaza, where Pew said security conditions prevented it from conducting interviews.

The research goes beyond a standard approval-style survey because respondents who gave a substantive answer were asked to explain their reasoning in their own words. Pew collected more than 1,500 such responses in Arabic and Hebrew, had them translated and then coded the answers for recurring themes. That qualitative component provides a closer look at what is driving pessimism rather than simply measuring how widespread it is.

Among Israelis who said peaceful coexistence was not possible, recurring concerns included the fear that an independent Palestinian state could create additional security risks, particularly after years of conflict and the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack and ensuing war. Some respondents referred broadly to violence and distrust, while others argued that territorial disputes or competing national and religious claims made partition impractical.

Palestinian respondents who rejected the possibility of peaceful coexistence often described the conflict through a different lens. Many cited Israeli control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, restrictions on movement, settlement and territorial issues, and the accumulated experience of violence. A related Pew analysis found that about nine in 10 Palestinians surveyed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem viewed Israeli checkpoints as a major problem, while 85% said employment opportunities were a major problem for themselves and their families.

Despite those differences, Pew identified several areas where pessimistic Israelis and Palestinians expressed broadly parallel concerns. Respondents on both sides discussed competing claims to the same land, longstanding violence and an inability to trust the other population. Some described the dispute in religious or cultural terms, while smaller groups faulted political leaders or said the other side simply was not interested in peace.

The smaller groups who remained optimistic also shared some themes. Respondents sometimes argued that peace was necessary because neither population could indefinitely remove the other from the region. Others cited personal relationships between Jews and Arabs, previous periods of cooperation, economic interdependence or the benefits that stable borders and reduced conflict could bring.

Palestinians who believed coexistence was possible were particularly likely to discuss economic advantages, according to Pew, including employment, trade and improved living conditions. Optimistic Israelis more often emphasized conditions that would have to change first, such as stronger political leadership, restored trust, security assurances or willingness by both sides to make concessions.

The survey was conducted face-to-face under Gallup’s direction. Pew interviewed 1,001 Israeli adults from April 5 through May 6 and 1,038 Palestinian adults in the West Bank and East Jerusalem from March 30 through April 28. Interviews were conducted in Hebrew and Arabic, and the results were weighted to represent the adult populations covered by the surveys.

The timing is important. Fieldwork occurred during a period of heightened regional conflict, beginning while the United States and Israel were at war with Iran and continuing after an initial ceasefire was declared on April 7. Pew therefore cautions, through its methodology and survey dates, that the findings capture public opinion during a particularly volatile security environment rather than an abstract period removed from active conflict.

The Israeli results also extend a longer trend. Pew has asked Israelis about the possibility of peaceful coexistence with an independent Palestinian state since 2013. At that time, half of Israeli adults said such coexistence was possible. By 2025 that figure had fallen to 21%, and in the 2026 survey it stood at 17%, while 56% explicitly said coexistence was not possible — the first time in Pew’s Israeli polling that more than half gave that answer.

There was also substantial uncertainty or nonresponse among some Israeli groups. Overall, 20% of Israeli respondents did not answer the coexistence question, including 46% of Arab Israelis. Among Arab Israelis who gave a substantive response, 23% said coexistence was possible and 26% said it was not, according to Pew. That high nonresponse rate means the figures should not be interpreted as a simple binary division of Israeli society.

For the United States, the survey has an additional layer of relevance because Pew separately asked the same populations about American involvement in the conflict. Forty-eight percent of Israeli adults said Washington was providing about the right amount of military assistance to Israel, while 20% said too much and 23% said not enough. Among Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, 69% said U.S. military assistance to Israel was excessive.

Views of U.S. humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza diverged just as sharply. Pew found that 52% of Israeli adults said the United States was providing too much humanitarian aid, compared with 18% who described the amount as appropriate and 19% who said it was insufficient. Among Palestinians surveyed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, 70% said U.S. humanitarian assistance to Gaza was not enough.

Those differences do not determine what governments will do, and public opinion can change as security conditions, leadership and diplomacy change. But the findings show the scale of the challenge facing any future U.S.-backed attempt to revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations: skepticism is not confined to one population, and people on each side often interpret the obstacles to peace through fundamentally different experiences of security, territorial control and political power.