In numbers: How the UK press demonised pro-Palestine protests

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11 min read

22 October, 2024

Over the past year, millions of people have taken to the streets globally to voice their condemnation of Israel’s barbaric assault on Gaza, the occupied��West Bank, and now Lebanon.

In the UK, Israel’s onslaught - which has killed at least 42,000 people in Gaza and 2,300 people in Lebanon��- sparked one of the largest-ever nationwide protest movements, with thousands of local demonstrations and over 20 national marches.

The demands have been unified and clear: an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to British complicity in Israel’s war crimes.

Last November, one month into Israel’s war, more than 800,000 people from across the country descended on London in solidarity with Gaza, marking one of the biggest protests in British history. Like all the national marches for Palestine, it was peaceful, orderly, and attended by adults and children of all ages, faiths, and ethnicities.

But the UK’s right-wing media has been telling a different story.

Since last October, major conservative and right-wing newspapers have exhibited a profound and consistent bias against the Palestine solidarity protests, as quantified by new research from ��, which analysed hundreds of headlines by The Sun, The Daily Mail, and The Telegraph.

The study found that since 7 October, these three publications - which have a combined monthly readership of around 78 million in the UK - did not run a single positive headline about the pro-Palestine protests. In fact, beyond three neutral headlines, all of them were unanimously negative.

More specifically, ��’s research shows these three outlets consistently demonised the Palestine solidarity protests, presenting them as threats to public safety in three key ways: 1) by claiming or implying that the protests were anti-Semitic; 2) by disproportionately focusing on rare instances of violence and arrest; 3) and by claiming or implying that the protests were supporting Hamas, terror or Islamic extremism, and promoting anti-British values.

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This from the Daily Mail shows all three framings in one: “Swastika placards, activists dressed as Hamas killers, a 'coconut' poster and clashes between pro-Palestine and far right counter protesters: How London was blighted by a day of hate as hundreds of thousands took to the streets on Armistice Day”.

�� found a total of at least 231 online headlines between October 2023 and September 2024. Of these, The Sun ran at least 78 negative headlines about the pro-Palestine demonstrations that occurred nationwide, the Daily Mail at least 86, and The Telegraph at least 67 – thereby averaging two articles demonising the protests every three days.

These media platforms have played a significant role in shaping public perception of the war amid an ongoing national reckoning about the right to protest, freedom of speech, Islamophobia, and the UK’s role in sustaining Israel’s destruction of Gaza.

'No-go zone for Jews'

One of the main accusations levelled by mainstream Western media against Palestine solidarity protests internationally is that of anti-Semitism. This is premised on a key misconception that conflates Zionism with Judaism and thereby equates anti-Zionism, or any criticism of the State of Israel, with anti-Semitism.

This conflation has long been used to shield Israel from legitimate criticisms about its abuses of human rights and international law, while accusations of anti-Semitism often serve to silence Palestinians and pro-Palestine activists.

While there have been instances of protestors holding anti-Semitic banners, most pro-Palestinian protests in the West have demonstrated multi-ethnic, multi-faith solidarity against Israel’s devastation of Gaza and beyond.

In the UK, a ‘Jewish bloc’ - composed of several groups including Na’amod, Jewish Voice for Labour, and Black Jewish Alliance - has marched at the front of every national demonstration, asserting

“Why was it never reported that on every single demonstration there were hundreds, if not thousands of Jewish people marching for Palestine?” asked Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which has been the main organiser of the UK’s protest movement.

The three British newspapers analysed in this study published at least 85 headlines claiming that the Palestine solidarity demonstrations were anti-Semitic, with 41 headlines from the Daily Mail alone. These kinds of headlines frequently alleged that the marches were “hateful” or constituted “hate crimes”. In fact, the words “hate”, “hating” and “hateful” were used 30 times, such as this from The Telegraph: “The Jew-hating hypocrisy of protesters is the strongest case for Israel’s existence”.

The year-long protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza represent the UK's largest-ever anti-war movement. [Getty]

Often, the examples of ‘anti-Semitism’ cited in these headlines are chants and banners such as “from the river to the sea” - a global statement freedom for all Palestinians living under occupation - as well as calls for “long live the Intifada”, an Arabic word meaning “uprising”.

At one point, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman even suggested that waving the Palestinian flag could be considered a criminal offence. “Even the claim that Israel is practising the crime of apartheid, or referring to this as a genocide is [deemed] something inherently anti-Semitic,” said Jamal.

At times, the publications’ readiness to interpret events as anti-Semitic reached absurd heights of prejudice and ignorance. For example, both The Sun and the Daily Mail ran a version of the following : 'This is sick behaviour!': Outrage at Palestinian protester filmed clutching blood-soaked effigy of dead baby in London triggering 'hate crime' probe’.

then went on to quote John Woodcock, the Government’s adviser on political violence, who said: “The use of a fake dead baby deliberately evokes the most sickening of the atrocities inflicted on Israelis by the Hamas terrorists. We must bring the perpetrators of this anti-Semitic crime to book and stand together to drive out the dark stain of Jewish hate.”

It did not occur to Woodcock, or the editors of The Sun and Daily Mail, that the protestor’s ��represented the thousands of Gazan children killed by Israeli airstrikes, underscoring how invisible the suffering of Palestinians has become.

Meanwhile, headlines from all three newspapers also placed a great emphasis on how the Palestine protests made some British Jews feel unsafe, often citing the words “no-go zone for Jews” as first used by Robert Simcox, the Home Office Commissioner for Countering Extremism.

"Since last October, major conservative and right-wing newspapers have exhibited a profound and consistent bias against the Palestine solidarity protests, as quantified by new research from ��"

This phrase alone was repeated in at least six headlines, such as this from the Daily Mail: “Pro-Palestine protesters are turning London into a 'no-go zone for Jews', claims Britain's counter-extremism tsar as he blasts the Government for letting extremists go 'unchallenged for too long'”.

Overall, �� found at least 24 headlines using the words “fear”, “safe/unsafe”, “terrified”, “hurt” and “anguish” to describe the impact of the protests.

This emphasis on safety was particularly obvious during the coverage of the peaceful campus protests that took place across UK universities, as exemplified by this from The Sun: “CAMP FEAR ‘This means death to me & my family’, inside pro-Palestine protest camps at Oxbridge leaving Jewish students ‘terrified’” and this ��ڰ��ǳ� the Daily Mail: “EXCLUSIVE How I was stalked by a masked man, mocked, told I had 'Jewish eyes' and publicly vilified by a baying mob when I visited the pro-Palestinian university protest camps that have terrified Jewish students”.

However, none of the student camps for Palestine in the UK have been prosecuted for anti-Semitism during their many months of activism - and many were supported, day to day, by Jewish students or staff.

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'Mobs, thugs, and vandals'

Another tactic used by media outlets to delegitimise pro-Palestine protests is to disproportionately focus on violent or criminal elements within the demonstrations. By spotlighting isolated incidents of unrest, clashes with police, or vandalism, these headlines undermine the peaceful nature of the protests and divert attention away from the central call for non-violent action for justice in Palestine.

Across the 231 headlines analysed in this study, �� found that the words “violent/violence”, “mobs”, “thugs”, “vandal/vandalism”, and “chaos” were used 39 times to describe the protests, or about one in every six headlines.

Examples of these include this by the Daily Mail: “Violent Pro-Palestine mobs clash with police outside Downing Street as activists bang on car doors and block roads as Met Police officers forced to don riot gear and make arrests - on night that has seen chaos in France and Italy”, as well as this from The Sun: “PROTEST CHAOS Three cops injured and 40 people arrested at pro-Palestine protest in Westminster which saw officer ‘struck by bottle’”.

Despite this disproportionate emphasis on violent and criminal elements within the protests, data from the Met Police itself shows that, in reality, the protests have been largely peaceful with low arrest rates. According to NetPol’s , a total of 305 arrests were made at pro-Palestine protests between 7 October 2023 and 31 March 2024, of which at least 89 were among far-right counter-protesters.

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Of the 305 arrests, 44% immediately resulted in no further action and only a small percentage resulted in charges. According to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which organised the protests, millions of people have attended marches for Palestine.

“You can do the maths: that's an extraordinarily low level of arrests, despite a lot of scrutiny from the police,” Jamal told ��.

In fact, as reported by , the arrest rate at pro-Palestine protests is lower than that at Glastonbury music festival.

Despite the overwhelming peacefulness of the demonstrations, the marches have been . The Met Police spent more than between October and March, a fact that The Sun and The Daily Mail frequently blamed on the protestors through like: “HATE DEMO BILL SOARS Fury as policing pro-Palestine marches costs taxpayers more than £25m”.

This selective reporting reinforces a false narrative of lawlessness, framing the pro-Palestine protests as a threat to public safety. The impact of this kind of coverage is reflected in the attitudes of the British public, with 29% of Britons saying that the Met Police is not doing a good job handling the protests, further fuelling right-wing theories around so-called “.

While falsely characterising the peaceful Palestine protests as ‘violent mob thuggery,’ The Sun, the Daily Mail and The Telegraph then saw the real meaning of those words during the widespread violence and racism of the UK’s anti-Muslim riots in early August.

Pairs of shoes with the name tags of children in Gaza sit on the steps below the National Gallery in London on Armistice Day on 11 November 2023. More than 17,000 Palestinian children have been killed in Israel's brutal year-long war. [Getty]

Anti-British values

As soon as the UK’s national marches for a ceasefire in Gaza began, right-wing and far-right activists began portraying the multi-ethnic, multi-faith movement as ‘Islamic extremism threatening British democracy and values’ - espousing the Great Replacement theory.

This is why, in November, far-right figure Tommy Robinson took to X to ask his supporters to counter-protest the Palestine marches. “Terrorist organisations, flags and banners are flying, calling for jihad and no one gets arrested, but they got someone holding a British flag and an English flag,” he said in a .

“We had this whole narrative that the Cenotaph needs protection. What did that do? It mobilised the far-right. What did we get on the day, we got far-right activists going to the Cenotaph and having pitched battles with the police,” explained Jamal to ��.

Take for example, ��ڰ��ǳ� The Sun: “Parliament’s surrender to a violent, Hamas-backing mob is a shaming, chilling and highly dangerous moment”, or this from the Daily Mail: “When WILL the Met crackdown on the Islamists hijacking the pro-Palestine marches? Fury as extremists carry effigies of dead babies and chant 'globalise the Intifada' during a massive rally on London's streets.”

While there have been instances of individuals outwardly celebrating Hamas’s armed wing, these have been rare exceptions to the rule at the protests. This did not stop all three publications from routinely interpreting Arab clothing () and as ‘evidence’ of Islamic terror or anti-Semitism, thereby showcasing the racist assumption that symbols of Palestinian/Arab culture and resistance are synonymous with Islamic extremism.

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Of the 231 total headlines, �� found that 99 of them (43%) directly portrayed the UK protest movement for Palestine as linked to Hamas, Islamic extremism and 'anti-British values’.

Across all three publications, the pro-Palestine march on Armistice Day last year was given special attention and consistently branded as an 'anti-British' event, producing a total of 30 such headlines. For example, take this from The Sun: “Heroes did not sacrifice their lives in order that mindless bigots today could march dressed as terrorists”, or ��ڰ��ǳ� the Daily Mail: “Dismayed poppy sellers surrounded by pro-Palestinian protesters, a crowd chanting 'shame on you' at child leaving McDonald's and tube passengers shouting 'smash the Zionist state' - as Met makes 29 arrests”.

However, in reality, the vast majority of the extremism and violence that day came from the hundreds of far-right supporters who clashed with police at the Cenotaph war memorial, leading to 92 arrests.

Conclusion

What is completely absent from these headlines is any context about why the pro-Palestine marches are taking place, such as the horrific human cost of Israel’s ongoing wars. Not a single headline from any of the three newspapers made any mention of the death toll in Gaza or beyond, with the word “ceasefire” only mentioned four times.

None of the headlines drew attention to the fact that, for months on end, hundreds of thousands of Britons of all ages and backgrounds came together to peacefully call for a ceasefire to an Israeli war that has killed tens of thousands of civilians and led the world’s top court to consider charges of genocide.

Despite the fact that an April poll found that just of Britons support the marches, Jamal believes the protests have succeeded in increasing Palestine solidarity. In fact, of Britons support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Telegraph would have people thinking that “West-hating pro-Palestinian protests are a harbinger of much worse to come”.

In reality, all three publications’ gross misrepresentation of Britain’s Palestine protests - the UK’s largest ever anti-war movement - reflect the terrifying reality that already exists: an Orwellian dystopia where peaceful protest is mob violence, criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism, and resistance to military occupation is Islamic extremism.

Nadine Talaat is a journalist writing about borders and migration, the environment, and media representation.��Follow her on Twitter:��

Sebastian Shehadi is a freelance journalist and a contributing writer at the New Statesman. Follow him on Twitter:��