A pro-Israel rally in the U.K. Photo: Screenshot.

The majority of Britons see Israel as the UK’s premier ally among many of the dominant countries in the Middle East, a new poll by the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre revealed on Tuesday.

Some 52% of respondents said they saw Israel as a British ally, above Saudi Arabia (40%), Turkey (39%), Qatar (29%) and certainly Iran (6%). A full 59% of respondents believed Iran posted a threat to Israel and the UK.

Additionally, nearly half of respondents said they felt boycott or divestment from Israel, or sanctions on the Jewish state, were deleterious to both Israelis and Palestinians because the Palestinian economy relies on a robust Israeli economy at its side.

Some 43% of respondents agreed with the statement that they did not boycott products from Israel and could not understand why anybody would given everything else going on in the world. Only about 12% of respondents signaled that they boycotted Israeli goods.

The poll, called British Attitudes Toward Israel, also asked respondents questions about media coverage of Israel.

Some 62% of respondents said they felt the British media did not provide enough background or context when reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, and a strong majority of 70% said they felt the media chooses the most dramatic pictures even if they do not reflect the true story.