Few college students list the Middle East conflict as the most important issue for them: Survey

Few college students list the conflict in the Middle East as one of the three most important issues for them, in a new survey released Tuesday.

The Generation Lab survey, conducted May 3-6, asked college students to select up to three issues that were most important to them from a list of nine.

The conflict in the Middle East came in last place, with just 13% of university students ranking the issue in the top three. Two other issues followed closely behind, garnering little support among college students: national security/terrorism (15 percent) and immigration policy (21 percent).

The other six issues were included in the top three of more than 30 percent of students surveyed: health care reform (40 percent), financing and access to education (38 percent), economic justice and opportunity (37 percent ), racial justice and civil rights (36 percent), climate change (35 percent) and gun control/safety (32 percent).

Research first reported by Axios, comes as protests against the war in Gaza have dominated public attention in recent weeks, raising concern among some Democrats about the potential consequences for Biden’s youth vote ahead of the November elections. This survey, however, raises doubts about whether the conflict will be important enough to young voters for them to change their behavior on election day.

The survey also shows that only 8 percent of respondents say they have participated in protests, including 7 percent against Israeli action in Gaza and 1 percent in support of Israel.

Among the 93 percent who did not participate in protests, 34 percent said they are in favor of protests against Israeli action in Gaza, 9 percent said they are in favor of pro-Israel protests and 50 percent did not select “none of the options above”.

A large majority of students (81 percent) said they support holding protesters accountable, including 45 percent who “definitely” and 36 percent who “probably” support the idea that students who “destroyed property, vandalized or occupied buildings illegally should be held accountable by their university.”

Fourteen percent said “probably not” and five percent said “definitely not” when asked the same question.

Only 33 percent of respondents said they thought occupying campus buildings was “acceptable for students to do as part of their protest.”

Ten percent said the same about blocking students who support Israel from entering certain campus spaces, and 42 percent said they thought it was acceptable to refuse a university order to disperse a camp or protest. Forty-four percent said none of the three options above were acceptable.

The survey included a representative sample of 1,250 students from 2- and 4-year schools. The margin of error is +/- 2.7 percentage points.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story