Zionist Occupied Government (ZOG)

‘ZOG’ refers to the conspiracy theory that the United States, its government and its media, are in fact controlled by the Jews. It is popular among the American far right, particularly in the white supremacist and neo-Nazi movements. ZOG stands for ‘Zionist Occupied Government’. 

The denunciation of the ‘ZOG’ has thus become a common conspiracy in the English-speaking world of antisemitism. It has resulted in hateful slogans and hashtags like "Smash ZOG," "Kill ZOG, or "Death to ZOG." ZOG is fully in line with the history of anti-Jewish representations and is directly linked to the idea of a Jewish plan for world domination as set out in the false document known as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

The acronym ‘ZOG’ first appeared in a 1976 text by American neo-Nazi Eric Thomson. It is used several times in The Turner Diaries (1978), a book written by white supremacist William Luther Pierce under the pseudonym Andrew MacDonald and considered to have been a key influence on Timothy McVeigh, the author of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The theme of Zionist Occupied Government is often extended to other sectors, and it has received a boost amid surging antisemitism in the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacres in Israel, and the subsequent war in Gaza. In April of 2024, the far right American conspiracist Sam Parker posted about the so-called “Zionist Occupied Media.”

(Last updated on 08/05/2024)