London: Israel is the second most disliked non-European country among Britons, ahead of Iran and Pakistan but behind the beleaguered North Korea, a new research suggests, that also ranks India as the fifth most "favourable" nation.
The research, entitled 'Internationalism or Isolationism’ British attitudes towards the UK's international priorities' classed the top five least favourable nations among Britons as North Korea, Israel, Iran, Pakistan and Nigeria.
Outside of Europe, Australia is the most "favourable" nation, followed by Canada, US, Japan and India.
The survey, conducted by think tank Chatham House, showed that 35 per cent of Britons felt "especially unfavourably" towards Israel, an increase of 18 per cent since 2012, while people's unfavourable feelings towards Iran dropped from 45 to 33 per cent.
North Korea, however, was the most disliked with 47 per cent of Britons acknowledging to have negative feelings towards the reclusive nation, followed by Pakistan (28 per cent) and Nigeria (21 per cent).
Unfavourable feelings towards Israel, the study suggests, probably resulted out of a surge in negative attitudes towards the Jewish-state following its 49-day war with Gaza last year.
The prominence of this news at the time of the survey contributed to the increase in unfavourable feelings towards Israel, it said.
Within Europe, Russia remains most disliked at 56 per cent, followed by Ukraine at a significantly lower 23 per cent.
The large spike in unfavourable views towards Russia was also presumably a public response to Russian actions in Ukraine, the report said.
