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Two Years Later: UK Media Delegitimizes October 7 as an Israeli Day of Mourning

Key takeaways: October 7 marked the second anniversary of the single deadliest day in recent Jewish history. Instead of focusing…

By October 08, 2025
Two Years Later: UK Media Delegitimizes October 7 as an Israeli Day of Mourning

Key takeaways:

  • October 7 marked the second anniversary of the single deadliest day in recent Jewish history.
  • Instead of focusing on or honoring the victims murdered by terrorists, too much of the UK media coverage focused on criticizing Israel’s response.
  • The imbalance exposes a dangerous moral blindness where condemning Israel has become easier for journalists than confronting the terror that started this war.

 

Two years ago, on October 7, 2023, the Jewish people suffered the greatest loss of life in a single day since the Holocaust as Hamas-led terrorists murdered, raped, and kidnapped their way through southern Israel. Since then, Israel has been fighting in Gaza to bring home its hostages and restore security to its people.

But the one day that should have been focused on remembering why this war started and commemorating the Israeli victims of Hamas was instead hijacked by Israel haters attempting to divert attention onto the Israeli military response and Palestinian victimhood. Even though Israel’s military operations did not begin on October 7, Western countries, including the U.S. and UK, witnessed anti-Israel marches to mark the day. In the UK, this occurred only days after the Yom Kippur terrorist attack on a Manchester synagogue that cost the lives of two innocent Jews.

The gross insensitivity and the denial of October 7 as a specifically Israeli or Jewish memorial day extended to parts of the media, particularly British outlets.

Here are just some examples from the coverage:

Sky News indulged in “both-siding” the day with stories of Palestinian suffering.

The Guardian framed its timeline around Israel’s defensive response, labeling it as an “assault,” and effectively obscuring the events that sparked the war.

The Associated Press wire service (although not British) similarly glanced over the cause of the war, beginning the story in the middle rather than with the terrorist attacks that sparked the ensuing conflict. By reframing the timeline, AP distorts not only the sequence of events but also the moral reality of who began this war and why it continues.

The BBC sent out an internal email to staff marking the day, but glossed over the atrocities of October 7, watering them down as mere “escalations” in the conflict. What happened on October 7 was no simple flare-up or escalation. It was a premeditated, brutal terrorist attack in which Hamas murdered, raped, and kidnapped civilians in southern Israel. In addition, instead of illustrating its email with an appropriate image from the day, the BBC chose to use an image of Palestinians amidst the rubble in Gaza.

After being called out by some of its own horrifed staff, the BBC was forced to apologize.

The narrative about life in the Gaza Strip also shapes perceptions of the conflict. Before October 7, much of the media portrayed Gaza as an “open-air concentration camp,” emphasizing extreme deprivation. The Times of London, however, marked two years since the Hamas massacre by highlighting the lifestyles lost by middle-class Gazans, once again distracting from Israeli suffering on October 7 as well as illustrating how Gaza’s reality is more complex than the narrative of Palestinian suffering that pre-October 7 coverage suggested.

How is it possible to produce a piece on October 7 and fail to mention either the hostages taken on that day? Somehow, ITV News succeeded.

It was the New Statesman, however, that really managed to reach the gutter with its decision to publish this journalistic atrocity:

The UK press has spent the week since Yom Kippur hand-wringing over the deaths of two members of the British Jewish community in an Islamist terror attack and has almost universally come to the correct conclusion that nothing in the Middle East can justify the targeting of Jews on British soil.

But when it comes to an Islamist terror attack of vast proportions that took place against Israel? The British media simply can’t see why October 7 is also unacceptable.

This pattern of reporting demonstrates a troubling moral inversion whereby it is easier for the media to condemn Israel for its actions and question its self-defense than it is to confront the terrorists who ignited this long war. By diverting attention away from the victims of October 7th and downplaying the atrocities carried out by Hamas, the UK media has helped obscure the reality of what truly happened on that horrific day.

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© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025

Sharon Levy

Sharon Levy

Born in Toronto, Sharon Levy moved to Israel in October 2023 and has held various roles in Israel advocacy and research institutions. Sharon has a Masters degree in Government with a specialization in Counterterrorism and Cyber Security from Reichman University.

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