Wikipedia

Zionist as a pejorative

The word Zionist is sometimes used as a pejorative term to disparage Jews, Israelis, or supporters of Israel.[citation needed] This is in contrast to the literal use of the word Zionist, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as originally "an advocate or supporter of a movement among Jewish people for the re-establishment of a Jewish nation in Palestine" and later "an advocate or supporter of the development and protection of the state of Israel" after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.[1]

Other terms derived from Zionist are also used pejoratively. The abbreviation Zio was popularized as an antisemitic slur by American white supremacist David Duke.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

History

Sociologist Robert Brym writes that the word Zionism may have reached a climax in terms of positive connotation in North America between the 1958 publication of the novel Exodus by Leon Uris and the 1967 Arab–Israeli War.[9] Brym writes that, in North America, the word underwent a process of pejoration, or acquiring a more negative connotation, which intensified with the persistence of Israel's occupation of formerly Arab-controlled territories following the 1967 war—the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Gaza Strip—writing that the phrase "Zionism is racism" began to increase in appearance across printed books starting in 1968. [9] By 2022, the phrase "Zionism is racism" appeared 129 times more frequently in printed books than it had in 1968.[9] Brym writes that this pejoration of the word may partly explain the fact that 49% of Canadian Jews describe themselves as Zionists, even as 94% say they support the existence of a Jewish state in Israel.[9]

In 2010, the British charity Community Security Trust (CST) said that "Zionist" was increasingly used as an antisemitic pejorative term in mainstream British discourse. The CST also alleged that the conflation of "Zionist" with "Jew" was becoming more common, and could obscure antisemitic intent.[10]

In 2016, the British Labour Party released the results of an inquiry into antisemitism in the party, which stated that "Epithets such as [...] 'Zio' and others should have no place in Labour party discourse going forward." Speaking at the inquiry's launch, party leader Jeremy Corbyn stated that "'Zio' is a vile epithet that follows in a long line of earlier such terms that have no place whatsoever in our party."[11]

The Philologos columnist in Jewish magazine Mosaic, writing in 2016, associated the term, used as an insult for Jews, with white-supremacists and said that it was popularized by antisemite David Duke, whose Ku Klux Klan website WikiZio uses Zio as a hyphenated prefix in terms such as "Zio-Communism," "Zio-economics," "Zio-history," "Zio-supremacism," or "Zio-occupied America."[12]

In 2017, the organizers of the Chicago Dyke March faced accusations of antisemitism after their Twitter account used the term "Zio tears",[13][14][15] later apologizing for the term's "violent history" while maintaining their anti-Zionist stance.[16] In April of the same year, Terry Couchman, an election candidate of the British Labour Party, was suspended over his use of "ZioNazi" in a post criticising Israel.[17][18][unreliable source?] Tony Greenstein, then a Jewish member of the Labour Party, was accused of antisemitism and expelled from the party in 2018 for using the term "Zios" among other allegations.[19][20] Ben Samuels of Haaretz said that the term was popularized first by David Duke and then later by leftists and members of the UK Labour Party.[16]

A quantitative content analysis of 99,062 tweets surrounding the 2018 U.S. elections found that just under 50% of the uses of the word Zionist were in an antisemitic context, and that #zionists was the hashtag with the third-highest rate of associated antisemitic content, behind #soros and #votered. Antisemitic uses of the word were common in QAnon-related tweets.[21]

In 2021, when a South African media outlet used the term "Zio-Nazi" for South African Jewish groups, Czech-Israeli Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer and author Matthias Küntzel called the term "hate speech".[22]

Jonathan Guyer wrote in The Guardian that the term Zionism means different things to different people,[23] citing a 2022 survey of American Jews' views on Zionism conducted by Mira Sucharov of Carleton University.[24] The survey showed that a majority of American Jews identified as Zionist when it was defined as supporting a "Jewish and democratic state", but would reject the label if it was defined as "privileging Jewish rights over non-Jewish rights in Israel".[25][23]

Use during the Gaza war

Contested meanings of Zionism

Jonathan Guyer, writing in April 2024, said that since the start of the Gaza war, “Zionism” had become a slur on the American left:

On social media and in the streets, critics no longer call out supporters of the state of Israel as “pro-Israel”: they call them Zionist. Some university encampments have posted signs saying: “Zionists not allowed.”[23]

According to American scholar Saree Makdisi, "when people think of Zionism now, they look at Gaza... This is what it means: that you want to have an ethnically exclusive state," and, according to him, "it's ugly."[23] According to IfNotNow co-founder Simone Zimmerman, "a lot more young people, including young Jews, are listening to their Palestinian friends and classmates who are saying: 'This is what Zionism means to us.'"[23]

Meta

In July 2024, Meta imposed restrictions on the use of the term Zionist.[26][27] There had been discussions at Facebook over the moderation of the term 'Zionist' in 2021 amid pressure from various organizations following an August 2020 letter[28] for the company to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism.[29][30] +972 Magazine reported that Jordana Cutler, Facebook's director of public policy for Israel and the Jewish diaspora and former advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu, was a key figure in these discussions at Facebook.[30]

Under Meta's prior internal policy regarding the term, as reported in 2021,[31] moderators were only to remove content using the term Zionist it was deemed to be used as a proxy for Israeli or Jewish.[32] Meta's 2024 policy change enabled moderators to enforce the rule more expansively.[32] In a Meta Policy Forum update:

Going forward, we will remove content attacking 'Zionists' when it is not explicitly about the political movement, but instead uses antisemitic stereotypes, or threatens other types of harm through intimidation, or violence directed against Jews or Israelis under the guise of attacking Zionists, including claims about running the world or controlling the media, dehumanizing comparisons, such as comparisons to pigs, filth, or vermin, calls for physical harm, denials of existence, and mocking for having a disease.[27]

Yasmine Taeb of MPower Change told pro-Palestine left-wing news organization The Intercept that the ADL and the American Jewish Committee—both pro-Israel, Zionist advocacy groups based in the US—had been lobbying Meta to restrict usage of Zionist on its platforms, though the Meta spokesperson said the policy change was not made "at the behest of any outside group."[32] A letter[33] sent to Meta by 73 organizations, including 7amleh, Jewish Voice for Peace, the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) and others, stated that the policy change would "too easily mischaracterize conversations about Zionists – and by extension, Zionism – as inherently antisemitic" and "encourage the incorrect and harmful conflation of criticism of the acts of the state of Israel with antisemitism."[34]

Scholar of antisemitism and U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt praised the change as "an important step in mitigating the rampant spread of online antisemitism".[27] It was also praised by the Combat Antisemitism Movement, CyberWell, and Israeli special envoy for combating antisemitism Michal Cotler-Wunsh.[27] Writing in The Forward, Mira Fox called it a "decent policy", responsive to a status quo wherein "bad actors [use Zionist] to provide plausible deniability for even the most boldly antisemitic statements" and "antisemitic use of "Zionist" as a synonym for "Jew" has been around basically as long as the political movement of Zionism has". Fox questioned why this new Meta policy had not always been the standard.[35]

On college campuses

In 2024, David Bernstein reported that support for Zionism had become a political 'litmus test' leading to social exclusion of Jewish students on many American college campuses following the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on Israel.[36] In 2024, following many harassment complaints, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign banned the ostracizing of Jewish students from school clubs for identifying as Zionist.[37]

In September 2024, Columbia University updated its anti-discrimination policy to classify the use of "Zionist" as a pejorative as potential harassment when directed at individuals based on religion or national origin. The policy cited examples where "Zionist" was used as a coded term to target Jewish or Israeli students and emphasized the distinction between political speech and discriminatory conduct. The update followed a critical report on campus antisemitism and mirrored similar actions by other universities, including NYU.[38]

In October 2025, Samuel Williams, a PPE student at the University of Oxford, faced a Metropolitan Police investigation after leading chants of "Gaza, Gaza make us proud, put the Zios in the ground," which he claimed to have workshopped in Oxford, with several others joining in.[39] The University of Oxford condemned the chant "in the strongest possible terms," stating, "Oxford is unequivocal – there is no place for anti-Semitism, harassment, or discrimination within our community. We remain firmly committed to protecting the safety and dignity of all our students and staff."[39]

In August 2024, New York University (NYU) updated the anti-harassment guidelines on its website to include the text "For many Jewish people, Zionism is a part of their Jewish identity. Speech and conduct that would violate the NDAH (non-discrimination and anti-harassment policy) if targeting Jewish or Israeli people can also violate the NDAH if directed toward Zionists," and "Using code words, like 'Zionist', does not eliminate the possibility that your speech violates the NDAH Policy," characterizing 'Zionist' as a protected class shielded by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 from "adverse treatment."[40] In response, the Middle East Studies Association's Committee on Academic Freedom sent NYU a public letter expressing concern, describing the new classification as "rooted in the improper conflation of criticism of Israel and of Zionism – a political ideology – with antisemitism."[41] Palestine Legal described NYU's policy change as "draconian" and criticized the claim "that Zionist is an identity meriting protection under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, rather than a political ideology used to justify apartheid and genocide."[42] Free speech advocacy group FIRE also criticized the decision, writing that, though use of the word Zionist may be part of a pattern of discriminatory harassment at NYU, the new policy classifies protected political speech as such.[43] NYU's chapter of Jewish on Campus praised the policy.[44]

Analysis and commentary

Organizations such as the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the London Centre for the Study of Antisemitism have said the term Zionist is being used as an antisemitic pejorative.[45][46][47][48]

According to the American Jewish Committee (AJC), "Zio" is used by antisemites to pass off their antisemitism as anti-Zionism and can be a euphemism for "Jew".[45] Writer Ariel Sobel of the Jewish Journal stated that "Zio" was an antisemitic slur with roots within antisemitic right-wing extremist circles that had been adopted by some progressives in their activism.[6]

British sociologist David Hirsh has argued that use of the word Zionist in a disparaging way is not distinct from antisemitism:

in our day the word “Zionism” itself often functions as an antisemitic curse word, which hurts and discredits Jews… It is a repackaging of old antisemitic understandings of the term “Chosen people,” a term that was already in Christian traditions a repackaging of nuanced, complex, and developing ways in which Jews thought about themselves… The word “Zionism” in antizionist usage conveys a familiar mixture of contempt and fear, as have previous words that have been used against Jews. It does this in a world in which the old words and languages have become discredited.[49]

British antisemitism scholar David Seymour argues that what he calls “antizionism” is an ideology that portrays an imaginary version of “Zionism” as a demonic evil, demonising Jews while claiming that it is only “Zionists” that it targets.[50]

An analysis of online comments and social media posts by Romanian scholar Adina Marincea found that Zionist has become a slur and stand-in for Jew in Romanian online discourse, often being used in antisemitic contexts. She writes that this finding is consistent with similar research from other countries, including a 2018 American study of tweets surrounding that year's midterm elections.[51]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Zionist, n. & adj.", Oxford English Dictionary (3 ed.), Oxford University Press, 2 March 2023, doi:10.1093/oed/1070882441, retrieved 29 August 2025
  2. ↑ "Chicago Dyke March Drops Pretense, Deploys Anti-Semitic Term Popularized by Neo-Nazis". Tablet Magazine. 14 July 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  3. ↑ Sommer, Allison Kaplan (14 July 2017). "Chicago DykeMarch Collective Revels in 'Zio Tears' in Twitter Rant". Haaretz. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  4. ↑ Feinberg, Tali (11 November 2021). ""Hit back hard," Holocaust scholar says of "Zio-Nazi" slur". Jewish Report. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  5. ↑ "How Chicago Dyke March Used 'Zio' — David Duke's Favorite Jibe". The Forward. 17 July 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  6. 1 2 "Why Are Progressives Using an Anti-Semitic Slur Coined by the KKK?". The Jewish Journal. 19 June 2019. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  7. ↑ Sinclair, Annabel (6 October 2026). "Scottish primary teacher reported to police over 'Zio' game for children". Jewish News. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  8. ↑ "What's the difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism?". BBC News. 28 April 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2026.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Brym, Robert (4 December 2025). "What Does Zionism Mean to Canadian Jews? A Longitudinal Study of Semantic Drift". Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes. 43: 86–101. doi:10.25071/1916-0925.40487. ISSN 1916-0925. Especially in North America, the positive connotation of the word Zionism may have reached its apogee between 1958, when Leon Uris's novel, Exodus, was published, and 1967, when Israel fought what most Jews call the Six Day War. As historian Jill Hamilton wrote, the novel "changed the public perception of Israel and the Jews. Exodus… became an international publishing phenomenon [translated into more than fifty languages], the biggest best seller in the United States since Gone with the Wind [published twenty-two years earlier]. Both the novel and the subsequent movie thrust Israel into the lives of millions, and with it initiated a new sympathy for the young country."4 The New York Times hailed the movie as a "fine reflection of experience." If the word Zionism had a positive connotation for most people in the West from 1958 to 1967, then after the Six Day War it underwent a process of pejoration, which intensified as Israel's occupation of formerly Arab-controlled territory persisted and intensified. A convenient indicator of this reversal may be derived from the Google Books Ngram Viewer, which allows one to search the entire Google Books corpus of more than five million volumes. I searched the phrase "Zionism is racism" in books published between 1940 and 2022, the last year available as of this writing. Mentions of the phrase first began to increase in 1968, the year after Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights. In 2022, mentions were 129 times more numerous than in 1968.
  10. ↑ "Anti-Semitic themes found in mainstream British circles". The Jerusalem Post. 12 November 2010. Archived from the original on 26 September 2013. Retrieved 2 June 2025. At the heart of revived anti- Jewish sentiments, according to the study, is the "corruption and debasement" of the word "Zionism," which is found not only in extremist discourse but more commonly in mainstream circles. The overlap of the words "Zionist" and "Jew" also manifests such corruption and reflects modern-day anti-Semitism, according to the CST report. "When mainstream journalists and politicians use the word 'Zionism' in a pejorative way, it can be very difficult to distinguish their words from those of actual anti-Semites who conceal their anti-Semitism by swapping the word 'Zionist' for 'Jew,'" the document states… "The use of "Zionist" as a pejorative description of any organized Jewish (or Jewish related) activity, such as the 'Zionist Jewish Chronicle' or the 'Zionist CST.' These bodies are then maltreated for being allegedly Zionist, rather than properly engaged with in their own right."
  11. ↑ "Labour antisemitism report tells members to stop using 'Hitler, Nazi and Holocaust metaphors'". The Independent. 30 June 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  12. ↑ "Who're You Calling a "Zio"?". Mosaic. Archived from the original on 17 January 2025. Retrieved 29 August 2025.
  13. ↑ Sommer, Allison Kaplan (14 July 2017). "Chicago DykeMarch Collective Revels in 'Zio Tears' in Twitter Rant". Haaretz. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  14. ↑ Stern, Mark Joseph (25 July 2017). "This Is a Safe Space. No Jews Allowed". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  15. ↑ "Chicago Dyke March Drops Pretense, Deploys Anti-Semitic Term Popularized by Neo-Nazis". Tablet Magazine. 14 July 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  16. 1 2 Samuels, Ben (18 July 2017). "'Violent History' of 'Zio': How Chicago's Dyke March Adopted an anti-Semitic Slur Dear to White Supremacists". Haaretz. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  17. ↑ Cohen, Justin (7 April 2017). "Exclusive: Labour candidate suspended over 'ZioNazi storm troopers' posts". Jewish News.
  18. ↑ "Labour Candidate Terry Couchman Reportedly Suspended for Posts Attacking "ZioNazi Final Solution" and "Jewish Organizations"". Campaign Against Antisemitism. 14 April 2017.
  19. ↑ "Tony Greenstein's 'notorious antisemite' libel claim dismissed by court". The Jewish Chronicle. 6 November 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  20. ↑ "Britain's Labour expels Jewish anti-Zionist activist over 'anti-Semitic' remarks". The Times of Israel. 19 February 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  21. ↑ Riedl, Martin J.; Joseff, Katie; Soorholtz, Stu; Woolley, Samuel (April 2024). "Platformed antisemitism on Twitter: Anti-Jewish rhetoric in political discourse surrounding the 2018 US midterm election". New Media & Society. 26 (4): 2213–2233. doi:10.1177/14614448221082122. ISSN 1461-4448.
  22. ↑ Feinberg, Tali (11 November 2021). ""Hit back hard," Holocaust scholar says of "Zio-Nazi" slur". Jewish Report. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 Guyer, Jonathan (12 May 2024). "How 'Zionist' became a slur on the US left". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 29 August 2025.
  24. ↑ Sucharov, Mira. "Do American Jews really know what 'Zionist' means? | Opinion". Haaretz.com. Archived from the original on 7 May 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2025.
  25. ↑ Moment (18 April 2023). "Moment Debate | Has the Word Zionism Outlived its Usefulness?". Moment Magazine. Retrieved 21 September 2025.
  26. ↑ "In groundbreaking new policy, Facebook says calling someone a 'Zionist pig' is antisemitic". The Forward. 9 July 2024.
  27. 1 2 3 4 "US antisemitism envoy lauds Meta ban on use of 'Zionist' as slur". Jewish News Syndicate.
  28. ↑ "Open Letter to Facebook — Stop Antisemitism". Stop Antisemitism. Archived from the original on 15 September 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
  29. ↑ Brandom, Russell (31 January 2021). "Facebook is getting pulled into a fight about the politics of Israel". The Verge. Retrieved 23 November 2025.
  30. 1 2 Konrad, Edo (25 March 2021). "Is Facebook about to crack down on criticism of Zionism?". +972 Magazine. Retrieved 23 November 2025.
  31. ↑ Biddle, Sam (14 May 2021). "Facebook's Secret Rules About the Word "Zionist" Impede Criticism of Israel". The Intercept. Retrieved 29 October 2025.
  32. 1 2 3 Biddle, Sam (9 February 2024). "Meta Considering Increased Censorship of the Word "Zionist"". The Intercept. Retrieved 29 October 2025.
  33. ↑ "'A Proxy in Your Hate Speech Policy': 73 Orgs Call on Meta to Stop Censoring Criticism of Zionism". The Wire. Retrieved 29 October 2025.
  34. ↑ Bhuiyan, Johana; Paul, Kari (10 February 2024). "Meta's review of hate speech policy sparks concern of further censorship of pro-Palestinian content". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  35. ↑ Fox, Mira (9 July 2024). "In groundbreaking new policy, Facebook says calling someone a 'Zionist pig' is antisemitic". The Forward. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  36. ↑ Bernstein, Joseph (22 May 2024). "Some Jewish Students Say Their Views on Zionism Have Affected Their Social Life". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 January 2025.
  37. ↑ Prince, Cathryn J.; Magid, Jacob; Berman, Lazar; Magid, Jacob (15 September 2024). "4 years after complaint, Illinois university bans harassment of students for Zionist views". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 9 May 2025.
  38. ↑ Nechin, Etan (24 September 2024). "Columbia University Updates Guidelines: 'Zionist' as a Pejorative Term Classified as Harassment". Haaretz. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
  39. 1 2 McArdle, Tom (14 October 2025). "Oxford student chants 'put the Zios in the ground'". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 14 October 2025. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
  40. ↑ The New Arab Staff. "NYU new guidelines identify Zionists as 'protected class'". The New Arab. Archived from the original on 18 April 2025. Retrieved 23 September 2025.
  41. ↑ Bâli, Aslı Ü.; Brand, Laurie (30 August 2024). "Letter to New York University expressing concern about its new "Guidance and Expectations for Student Conduct"". Middle East Studies Association. Retrieved 23 September 2025.
  42. ↑ Zituni, Danya (29 August 2024). "Palestine Legal Statement on NYU's New, Draconian Student Conduct Policies". Palestine Legal. Retrieved 23 September 2025.
  43. ↑ "FIRE to NYU: Last chance to fix free speech issues on campus before accreditor complaint | The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression". www.fire.org. 10 September 2024. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  44. ↑ Lapin, Andrew (24 August 2024). "NYU issues hate speech guidelines discouraging students from targeting 'Zionists'". The Times of Israel. ISSN 0040-7909. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  45. 1 2 "Zionist / "Zio"". American Jewish Committee. April 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  46. ↑ "GLOSSARY OF ANTISEMITIC TERMS" (PDF). Antisemitism Policy Trust.
  47. ↑ Hirsh, David (2022). "How the Word "Zionist" Functions in Antisemitic Vocabulary". Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism. 4 (2): 1–18. doi:10.26613/jca.4.2.83.
  48. ↑ "David Hirsh - London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism". London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. Retrieved 31 August 2025.
  49. ↑ Hirsh, David (1 December 2021). "How the Word "Zionist" Functions in Antisemitic Vocabulary". Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism. 4 (2): 1–18. doi:10.26613/jca.4.2.83. ISSN 2472-9906.
  50. ↑ Seymour, David (1 August 2019). "Continuity and Discontinuity: From Antisemitism to Antizionism and the Reconfiguration of the Jewish Question" (PDF). Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism. 2 (2): 21–22. doi:10.26613/jca/2.2.30. ISSN 2472-9906. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  51. ↑ Marincea, Adina (1 January 2025). "Who Are the 'Zionists'? Finding the Boundaries between Political Criticism and Antisemitism in the Romanian Online Discourse". Holocaust. Study & Research / Holocaust. Studii şi Cercetări. 17 (1(18)): 387. ISSN 2065-6602.
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