On the fifth anniversary of the historic signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates a new player on the Middle East stage was unveiled – The Accordists – founded by broadcaster and
Quilliam champion Maajid Nawaz.
The Accordists movement was established to campaign for the Abraham Accords as the predominant framework for greater peace and prosperity in the Middle East. Founded in London, Accordists operates online and worldwide. As part of the launch, Accordists commissioned polling by YouGov.
Today the Accordists releases its exclusive YouGov poll to review changes over the past four months by asking the same questions. The results are attached, with last September’s results for comparison.
The backdrop has changed – since September the intensity of the Gaza conflict and the reporting on it has significantly reduced and attention has shifted to other arenas domestic and international, including Iran.
Our polling shows that today, as last year, 91% of those expressing an opinion agreed that good relations between Israel and Arab nations are ‘Very important’ (39%) or ‘Fairly important’ (52%) to ensuring global peace and security. However of those saying relations are important, 39% selected ‘Very important’ against 49% last year. We think this reflects less coverage.
Respondents were again asked to choose three out of sixteen issues as the most important to them if voting in a General Election today. ‘Conflict in Gaza’ took just 14th place (with 5% selecting it) vs 11th last year. For 2024 Conservative or Reform voters the importance of the Gaza conflict remained negligible (in 15th place for both sets of party voters), whereas 2024 Green voters still placed this issue 4th with 26% selecting it compared with 5% of all GB
adults.
Accordists suspects that many 2024 Green voters may have transferred their loyalties to Gaza-focussed Labour splinter parties since then, highlighting how the Middle East issue could split the left and liberal vote in any coming
General Election. It was interesting how the positions of those with stronger views on both sides remained steady while the Gaza-priority of Labour/ LibDem voters collapsed from 11 / 10 points to 5 / 3 points , respectively. Our own ‘Controversiality Measure’ showed ‘Conflict in Gaza’ as by far the issue with the greatest differences in opinions, followed closely by ‘environment and climate change’.
Accordists founder Maajid Nawaz said: ‘Accordists seeks to bridge the gap between the surveyed public appetite for better relations and a total lack of awareness about the existing framework created to achieve these better relations. This is why we were founded. The world is emotionally and physically exhausted from war. If now is not the time to begin campaigning for a lasting regional peace then when is?’
Download Press Release and Survey Results