Israel Gaza: Angst grows among young voters over Biden’s policy

Abdul Osmanu, 22, is not sure he can cast a ballot for President Joe Biden again. Much of that hesitation, he said, involves the Biden administration’s support of Israel as it continues to bombard Gaza.

“As a lover of peace, a Muslim, and a black man, it’s terrible to see the repression of the Palestinians,” said Mr Osmanu, who was elected to his local town council in 2021. “It’d be tough for me, in my conscience, to vote for a president aiding and abetting that in many ways.”

The young Connecticut voter told the BBC that he was weighing whether to vote for a third-party candidate or leave his presidential ballot blank in 2024. The decision is difficult, however, as he – and many other young voters – do not want to see Donald Trump elected again.

An increasing number of young Democratic voters, like Mr Osmanu, appear to be breaking with President Biden over the issue of Israel and the conflict in Gaza. It is a cause for concern for Democrats, as their opposition to Mr Biden’s policies could threaten a key pillar of support that the elder statesman leaned on during the 2020 election.

For the past two months, young voters have seen in the news and on social media images of war and destruction from within Gaza. They have followed the death toll as it climbed to over 20,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

At the same time, they have watched as Mr Biden publicly backed Israel’s stated effort to eradicate Hamas after they and allied groups killed 1,200 people in Israel on 7 October. It continues to hold an estimated 100 hostages in Gaza.

The BBC reviewed polling research and spoke to six young Democratic voters and organisers from across the US. Data and interviews appear to show a growing sense of political discord among young voters ahead of the 2024 election.

The Biden campaign declined to comment.

But registered voters aged 18-29 said they were more likely to support the Palestinian cause over Israel, a recent New York Times/Siena poll suggested. According to the survey, voters aged 18-29 had critical views of Israel and its counteroffensive against Hamas across the board, while older generations had more favourable views of the country.

Though a clear majority of registered voters – 57% – disapprove of the way Mr Biden is handling the conflict, young voters have the greatest objections. A total 72% of voters aged 18-29 disapprove of Mr Biden’s efforts, the Times/Siena poll indicated.

Anna Bosking, a 22-year-old Iowa native, plans to vote for Mr Biden again. But after taking a Middle Eastern politics course at university, speaking to classmates from Gaza and seeing eyewitness accounts on social media, she has become more critical of America’s relationship with Israel.

“Before this conflict I always thought Israel was a consistent ally that we would always support, and I never had any issues,” she told the BBC. “But I think the American people have been forced to consider the historical context in the situation.”

One possible reason for the divide is that young Democrats, particularly progressives, are also more likely to connect the cause of Palestinian statehood to the fights for social justice playing out in the US.

“A lot of the organisations that I’m present in have made strong connections to what the Palestinians experience, and want to continue to uplift their struggle,” said Michael Abramson, the 25-year-old policy director of Young Democrats of Maricopa County in Arizona.

Mr Abramson organises in a key Arizona county for Democrats. He said he was confident the youth would turn out in Arizona for other candidates and ballot measures – such as abortion – but he said he was unsure whether he and others would vote for the Democratic nominee, whom he called “the lesser of two evils”.

Democrats relied on young voter turnout to propel them to victory in the 2020 presidential election and the 2022 midterms. The Democratic apparatus typically pours millions of dollars into youth outreach and engagement to shore up support.

And not all young voters criticised Mr Biden’s position towards Israel.

Jessica Schwab, a 20-year-old student at Columbia University in New York, said she did not want to see Mr Trump re-elected and thought Mr Biden was handling the conflict well.

“He’s standing with Israel and providing them with military supplies, and general funding in their defence,” she said. “But I do like how he is also asking for humanitarian pauses, and inserting some sort of breathing room to reduce the amount of casualties that are occurring in Gaza.”

Mr Biden’s backers also argue that the 2024 election is nearly a year away, and that young Democrats would come back to the fold if presented with a choice between Mr Biden and Mr Trump.

“It’s a choice between two candidates,” said Jack Lobel of the Gen-Z voter advocacy group Voters of Tomorrow. “And so while President Biden’s policies towards Gaza might be upsetting some young people, that’s not going to change the fact that he and Donald Trump are two very different people.”