US students expressing pro-Palestinian stances demonstrated embarrassing knowledge of the conflict and failed to place the area on the map

• UC Berkeley, where the survey was conducted // Photo: AP

A survey of US students revealed that students who responded that they were deeply interested in "Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories" were unable to place Israel on the map or recognize basic dates in the history of the conflict.

The survey, conducted among 230 undergraduates at the prestigious Berkeley University of California, by Professor Ron Hasner of the Diller Family School of State of Israel, published the results in an article published last week.

The survey rated students' access to 18 burning issues where US-Iran relations, Yemen's civil war, drone killings and students were asked to choose from five categories ranging from "not at all" to "deeply interested."

43 percent of the students surveyed expressed the highest interest in the Israeli-Palestinian issue, and most expressed little, if any, interest in other issues related to the Middle East, such as West Sahara's struggle for independence or the Kurds' own state.

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Of the students who expressed deep interest in the Palestinian issue, 84% did not know in what decade the West Bank was under Israeli control and 75% failed to place the West Bank on a map. 14 percent of students located the West Bank in the heart of the Mediterranean.

Israeli campus information booth in the United States // Photo: Courtesy of reservists on the front

The students also did not know what the population of the State of Israel was and only 17% were able to score to the nearest reality class. Others offered unfounded answers like one hundred thousand or so hundred and fifty million.

The surprising figure was that the students who expressed less interest or care in the occupation of the Palestinian territories discovered a little more extensive knowledge of what is happening in the area. 28% of them were able to place the West Bank on the map as opposed to 25% of students who expressed interest in the subject.

Professor Hasner, who conducted the study, said: "The questions best answered by students were actually about places where they did not express special interest, such as Turkey and Morocco. If misinformation is the result of political and biased interest, good education could be the solution."