Four Ways Anti-Israel Trends on Social Media Spread Antisemitism
- Ofek Kehila
- 19 hours ago
- 4 min read
Social media users and influencers are spreading antisemitism daily. Some encourage antisemitism via a biased anti-Israel stance. Others engage in online trends entailing the trivialization of the Holocaust and conspiracy theories related to Jews and Israel; there are even users who favor social media platforms known as havens for antisemitic voices.
Here are four ways in which anti-Israel trends on social media spread antisemitism.
Encouraging antisemitism via a biased anti-Israel position
Early education content creator Rachel Accurso, known online as Ms. Rachel, recently posted an apology after liking an antisemitic comment on her account. The comment reads: “Free America from the Jews.” In her apology, Accurso claimed she accidentally liked the comment and would never agree with such antisemitic content. However, this incident reflects a deeper problem.
Even though Ms. Rachel creates educational content for children, she is known for discussing topics such as the Gaza war on her children’s show and advocating on social media. According to the Combat Antisemitism Movement, “Her activism has been widely criticized for amplifying anti-Israel narratives and for minimizing or failing to address antisemitism, particularly after Hamas’s October 7th massacre.”
Since Ms. Rachel’s content reaches millions of children in the US and around the world, her biased activism raises concerns regarding the influence of Anti-Israel propaganda on children at such a young age.
It is also necessary to mention the recent nomination of Ms. Rachel to the inaugural committee of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, known for his anti-Israel stance, and the fact that in her advocacy, Ms. Rachel clearly prioritizes the children of Gaza while ignoring others, such as children in Israel or Ukraine, for instance.
Taking all into account, Ms. Rachel’s biased political stance is very problematic, especially since she mainly targets young children and toddlers. Even though her content is not explicitly antisemitic, the anti-Israel focus ends up encouraging blatant antisemitic comments, such as the ones frequently posted on her videos.
‘Gaza Holocaust survivor’ trend
In a popular trend on social media, anti-Israel influencers and activists publish posts and videos claiming “I am a Gaza Holocaust survivor” and “I am a survivor of a real Holocaust.”
According to CyberWell, a non-governmental organization dedicated to combating online antisemitism, the term “Gazan Holocaust” has appeared in over 500,000 posts on X and other social media platforms, reaching an audience of hundreds of millions online.
By equating the Gaza war with the Holocaust and Israel with Nazi Germany, anti-Israel influencers engaging in this trend dabble in a series of dangerous antisemitic tropes: Holocaust inversion, Holocaust denial, a distortion of reality in the Middle East, and a trivialization of the Holocaust’s victims. Since this trend spreads hostility and prejudice against Jewish people as a whole, it stands out as a prominent form of antisemitism.
In other social media posts related to the “Gaza Holocaust survivor” trend, users are mocking the Holocaust, appropriating its distinctive symbols—such as the Auschwitz tattoo—, and trivializing the historical gravity of the Holocaust by equating themselves with Holocaust victims and survivors.
UpScrolled: A haven for antisemitic content
UpScrolled has become the most-downloaded social media platform in Apple’s App Store. At the same time, it is being used to spread explicit anti-Israel and antisemitic content.
UpScrolled was founded by Issam Hijazi, a Palestinian tech entrepreneur born in Jordan and now living in Australia. Hijazi claims he created the app to provide space for silenced pro-Palestinian voices. However, rather than pro-Palestinian, content posted on UpScrolled is blatantly anti-Zionist and antisemitic.
Users are posting antisemitic comments, such as “Happy WP Wednesday! All kikes please face the wall. #fuckthejews.” Others are spreading conspiracy theories of Jewish world domination and pictures of a Nazi swastika with the writing “It’s ok to be a national socialist.”
At Web Summit Qatar, Hijazi himself voiced classic antisemitic tropes, claiming that Jewish tech entrepreneurs “have been controlling the media, as in the TV news outlets” and that “We don’t have to rely on Zionist money.”
Anti-Israel conspiracy claims
In the aftermath of the Hanukkah Massacre in Australia, where 15 Jews were murdered during a Hanukkah celebration, anti-Israel conspiracy theories related to the Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, started spreading across the internet.
These conspiracy theories divulge the false claim that Israeli Mossad agents orchestrated the Bondi Beach massacre to garner support and defame Muslims.
This social media trend denies Jewish victimhood and falsely blames Jews and Israelis for the atrocities they themselves have suffered. Thus, it echoes traditional antisemitic libels of Jewish control of global affairs.
This is but one example of many different antisemitic conspiracy theories. Others are false claims that Israel assassinated American political activist Charlie Kirk, baseless claims that the Mossad was involved in the September 11 attacks, and others.
Wrap up
Though different in their nature, all of the mentioned social media trends equally spread antisemitism, whether by encouraging it via a bias toward Jews and Israel, engaging in trends that mock and trivialize the Holocaust, propagating baseless conspiracy theories, or posting blatantly antisemitic content.
Since social media platforms are not doing enough to stop antisemitic trends, these troubling tropes and theories continue to circulate.
Ofek Kehila (Israel, 1987) is a scholar of Spanish Golden Age literature and Latin American literature of the 20th and 21st centuries. His research bridges the gap between those traditions, highlighting their aesthetic, cultural, and historical dialogue. He holds a PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2022) and was a postdoctoral fellow at Freie Universität Berlin (2023-2025).