There have been characterizations of the word Zionist, as well as of various derivations of the word including the abbreviationZio or compounded terms such as Zionist pig[1] or Zionazi, as pejorative terms used to disparage various groups of people, including Jews, Israelis, or supporters of Israel. This is in contrast to the primary definitions of the word Zionist, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, 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.[2]
In 2010, the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post published that the British charity Community Security Trust found that "Zionist" was increasingly used as an antisemitic pejorative term in mainstream British discourse.[11] It noted that the conflation of "Zionist" with "Jew" was becoming more common and could obscure antisemitic intent.[11]
In 2016, the British Labour Party released an inquiry into antisemitism stating 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."[12]
The Philologos columnist in Jewish magazine Mosaic, writing in 2016, associated the term with the American white-supremacist 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."[13]
In 2017, the organizers of the Chicago Dyke March faced accusations of antisemitism after their Twitter account used the term "Zio tears",[14][15][16] later apologizing for the term's "violent history" while maintaining their anti-Zionist stance.[17] 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.[18][19]Tony Greenstein, then a Jewish member of the British Labour Party, was accused of antisemitism and expelled from the party in 2018 for using the term "Zios" among other allegations.[20][21] Ben Samuels of Haaretz said that the term was popularized first by David Duke and then later by leftists and members of the British Labour Party.[17]
In April 2024, Jonathan Guyer noted 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 viewed 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]
Guyer writes that, particularly during the Gaza war, what it means to be a Zionist has been contested, as "arguably for the first time, a Palestinian perspective on Zionism is taking center stage in mainstream discourse."[26] While some pro-Israel organizations including 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,[27][28][29][30][31] for many Palestinians, Zionist is an "ugly" term because of how they experience Zionism.[26] In the Palestinian experience, according to Rabea Eghbariah, Zionism is inseparable from the Nakba, including the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight as well as the ongoing occupation, apartheid, and genocide.[32][33] According to 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."[26] According to 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.'" [26]
In July 2024, Meta made the controversial decision to impose restrictions on the use of the term Zionist.[34][35] Under Meta's prior internal policy regarding the term, as reported in 2021,[36] moderators were only to remove content using the term Zionist it was deemed to be used as a proxy for Israeli or Jewish.[37] Meta's 2024 policy change enabled moderators to enforce the rule more expansively.[37] According to a Meta spokesperson:
While the term Zionist often refers to a person’s ideology, which is not a protected characteristic, it can also be used to refer to Jewish or Israeli people. Given the increase in polarized public discourse due to events in the Middle East, we believe it’s important to assess our guidance for reviewing posts that use the term Zionist.[37][38]
Yasmine Taeb of MPower Change noted 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."[37] A letter[39] 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."[38]
New York University
In August 2024, New York University 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]
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.[43]
In 2024, a Canadian graduate school instructor produced a syllabus that declared “this classroom is a space free of sexism, racism, Zionism, homophobia, and all other forms of social violence.” The university president responded that the instructor was discriminating against pro-Israel students based on creed.[44] Support for Israel was noted to be a 'litmus test' leading to social exclusion of Jewish students at many campuses following the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on Israel.[45] 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.[46] According to David Seymour, antizionism’s claim that it is only 'Zionists' and not 'the Jews' who are demonized gains its justification. The ideology of antizionism portrays Zionists as freely choosing evil and its harmfulness, legitimizing the demand for exclusion and passing the responsibility for the exclusion onto the excluded themselves.[47]
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.[48] 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."[48]
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