Zionism is Racism motion: forensic analysis of UK Media’s biased coverage

JVL Introduction

We are grateful to Newscord for its detailed analysis of the press coverage of the Green Party’s Zionism Is Racism motion.  The bias is frankly staggering! Not only were Palestinian voices virtually absent but there was more anger expressed over this motion than the actions of Israel in Gaza or anywhere else. The inevitable conflation of antiZionism with antisemitism was repeated and repeated with the usual highlighting of “the Jewish community” and “Jewish sensitivities” as though Jews speak with one voice and, more importantly, as though Jewish feelings of discomfort are a higher priority than Palestinians’ lives.

The reality is that this was not reporting on the motion but attacking the motion and its supporters. This article has detailed counts for how often words such as antisemitism, terrorism, danger and extremism were used and how rarely genocide was mentioned. Not one article was published showing support and rather than look into the loss of so many of the motion’s proposer, Lubna Speitan’s family members, there was more interest in linking her to a terrorist. None even seemed interested in the reasons behind the motion.

In addition to the bias, the coverage was almost excessive as 37 UK national outlets produced 447 articles on this one motion over a period of 20 days.  This article analyses who was quoted and how much (and this is in addition to articles written by organisations such as the so called Campaign for Antisemitism). While anti-Zionist Jews were, of course absent, groups such as the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council as well as the Chief Rabbi and, indeed, the Israeli government, were given extensive space.

The research also notes what else was published over the 20 days: the Daily Mail ran 38 articles on the motion and 2 on Israel’s violence in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.

Please note that as well as the words we publish below there are useful spreadsheets in the original which are too difficult for us to reproduce but are referred to in the text. Do go to the original if you want to read the details as the tables show each outlet on each day with the words they use and more.

This article was originally published by Newscord on Tue 20 Oct 2026. Read the original here.