May 19, 2021
As the deadly military confrontation between Israel and Hamas enters its second week, an ADL assessment finds a disturbing array of antisemitic posts related to the conflict on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
While much of this content appears to have been posted by individuals who have reached for antisemitic stereotypes in a misplaced response to their anger over Palestinian suffering, it is possible that some true antisemites are taking advantage of current events by weaving it into their usual bigoted rhetoric.
In any event, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are enabling the spread of antisemitism at a moment of historically high antisemitic incidents, and when Jews worldwide are vulnerable to being scapegoated for the actions of the Israeli government.
Instagram:
- A photo of a smiling Adolf Hitler with the caption, “Hitler❤The slayer of the Jews terorist❤ [sic] #freepalestine #freealquds #muslim #muslimah #gaza #gazaunderattack #fuckisrael.”
An Israeli flag, which incorporates the Jewish star of David, with the accompanying text, “Pedophiles are using this symbol to identify each other,” and the caption #idf #israel #jews #talmud.”
- A post claiming that Jews are enemies of Muslims, per a verse from Quran that states, “You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the Jews and those who associated others with Allah,” with the hashtags #palestine, #freepalestine, #israel, #hamas, and #jews.
- A video accompanied by a message alleging that Jews have historically been responsible for oppressing innocent people. “Eviction and displacement of innocents is not a new phenomenon amongst the ones of Isr*el [sic],” the poster wrote.
- An image of a ruined building accompanied by hashtags promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories, “#Israel #Terrorism #Zionism #Satanism #Rothschild #Netanyahu #KhazarianMafia.”
- More than 40,000 posts with the hashtag #covid1948, implying that the founding of Israel unleashed a deadly virus upon the world.
- A post describing Holocaust survivor Jewish refugees who fled to Palestine in 1947 as “parasites.”
Facebook:
- An extended thread of Holocaust denial in the group “Humans Against Zionism,” with 2300 members, with a post depicting a photo montage comparing images of Hitler and the Nazi persecution of Jews during World War II to images of Benjamin Netanyahu and members of the Israeli army. Commenters responded: “Holohoax,”; “Holocaust is so overrated. The numbers are definitely bullshit...;” “These psychos that control the media invert everything;” They desperately want us to remember their SIX MILLION LIES.”
- In comments on a post about the Israeli bombings of Gaza in the group “Humans Against Zionism,” a commenter wrote, “Can’t we build a large meat grinder like the one in pink floyds ‘the machine’ well grind up who or what we can of them and market it as kosher potted meat product to the rest of them.” [sic all]
- On yet another post in the “Humans Against Zionism” group, a commenter quoted an antisemitic website: “Jews are often on the vanguard when it comes to trashing Christian mores and human dignity, and creating dysfunction whether its undermining gender and marriage or peddling promiscuity, pornography or abortion.”
- In a post in the “Palestine” group, which has 88,000 members, a commenter wrote, “Never do any favours to the Zionists (Jews) because it’s in their nature to stab in back of their saviours.”
- In another post in the “Palestine” group, a commenter wrote, “If Adolf Hitler had killed all the Jews that day, the world would not be here today to see Israel's heinous barbaric terrorist activities.”
- In a post in the group “Boycott Israel.... Support the BDS,” with 33,000 members, a commenter posted the full text of an article which said, in part:
“…Many of the claims [Jews] made about the Holocaust that I had believed unquestioningly for so long were in fact fraudulent….I found out about the Jewish history of avariciousness, larceny, lying, manipulation and their questionable and usurious business practices. I learned about their roles in the radical homosexual movement, the radical feminist movement, the pornography industry as well as their over-representation in the abortion industry. I discovered their role in organized crime, in the slave trade, in the civil rights movement and in Communism, an ideology that is responsible for the deaths of untold millions and the repression of many millions more.”
TikToK:
- A post on TikTok circulated a video of an imam speaking about a Quran verse: “‘You will surely find, time and again, that those who will have in their hearts the greatest hatred and enmity and hostility for you, will be the Jews.’ So now your most dangerous enemy in the world is in charge of you.” A caption said, “The Zionist Jews are fulfilling this verse of the Qur’an, look how they’re behaving today.”
- A clip featuring an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man, presumably somewhere in America, dodging birds that were flying at him, is captioned: “Qorxaq yahudi [Azerbaijani for “cowardly Jew”] 😂# iran # freepalestine # covid1948.” This emphasizes the extent to which Jews worldwide are being blamed for the violence in Gaza.
- A clip featured antisemitic conspiracy theorist David Icke claiming that the Jewish Rothschild banking family controls Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, all of which enable Israel to “get away with mass freaking murder over and over again.” The poster included the hashtag #freepalestine.
