By Joshua Sampson and Andre Oboler
This briefing looks at one particular account on X (Twitter). It has been prepared using data collected by members of OHPI’s New Zealand team. Content from this account was found in New Zealand based discussion, but the account itself does not appear to be run from New Zealand.
The account
This person’s profile uses an image of a crusading knight, something often used by the far-right. In apparent contradiction to this they describe themselves as a “Global Citizen” saying they are “Pro Truth” and “Pro Justice”. One thing that is immediately clear: with over 6,400 posts made in 10 months, that is on average around 150 tweets every week, they are on an online crusade.
Promoting Nazism
The nature of their crusade can be seen In a recent post where they commented “Me after watching the Jews and Zionists being exposed on X. lmao”. It accompanies a meme of an elderly man drinking coffee and looking at their laptop with the text “aww those poor Jews were so persecuted. Let me look up why.” Followed by text “5 hours later” and the same picture with the man now in a Nazi uniform.
The post glorifies Nazism, claims the Jews were responsible for the Holocaust, and generally excuses antisemitism as something reasonable. The comment accompanying the image suggests the user feels antisemitic posts “exposing Jews and Zionists” are making them more supportive of Nazis, the Nazis “final solution to the Jewish question” (i.e. commiting genocide against Jews) and antisemitism.
Calling Israel and Jews Nazis
This post is calling Israelis/Zionists the new Nazis. It is a photoshopped image of the cover of a children’s book “Under the Rockets’ Glow: Shira’s Journey to Courage” published in January 2024.
An article in the Jewish Journal explains how the book was written by Roman Sandler, an engineer at a medical technology company in Los Angeles, to explain the current situation since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack to his 5 year old daughter. It ranges from bible stories to recent history, telling the story of the Jewish people and their connection to Israel, all in an age appropriate manner. It is illustrated with the use of AI. The book rose to the top of the best selling Jewish Children’s Books list on Amazon. The book has also been the subject of online attacks describing it as “Nazi Zionist propaganda” and campaigns to create false reviews down-rating it on sites like Amazon.
In the example shown here the cover is adapted so the title reads “We’re the Nazis Now!” Above the title is says “My how history rhymes” and below it “Israel’s inevitable journey to fascism and self-destruction”. The bottom of the cover contains the words: “Zionism(TM) is an antisemitic death cult”. This is a very clear example of Holocaust inversion, combined with another perverse inversion claiming Zionism, created as a solution to antisemitism, is responsible for antisemitism.
Power conspiracy theories: control of governments
This post claims that the US is not a democracy but a puppet of Israeli/Zionist/Jewish control. “No matter who you vote for, whether it’s Trump, Biden, or RFK Jr – the only winner is Israel. The Illusion of Democracy is being displayed right before your eyes…” it says. The idea of a Jewish/Zionist conspiracy controlling governments has a long history in antisemitic literature and can be seen most infamously in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”.
In the bottom right corner of this image also contains an antisemitic meme known as the “Happy Merchant. This makes it more explicit that Zionist/Israel is being used as a dog whistle for “Jewish”. It is used by antisemites, from the far-right, to mark antisemitic content so others wanting to help promote antisemitism can share it.
Far-right conspiracies
This example features an Islamic warrior next to a crusader knight facing down a mob of different progressive causes, all under the control of a face with spider-limbs and a Jewish star above its head. The Muslim warrior says “together?” and the crusader replies “together.” The image suggests conservative religious forces must stand together against an onslaught of liberal values. The text of the post accompanying the image adds to this saying “This is the only way to stop them.”
The image is blatantly antisemitic. It calls for Christians and Muslims to unite to stop the hordes of dangerous progressivism, controlled by the Jews.The image of the Jew as a spider controlling others is an antisemitic trope used, among others, by the Nazis. The idea of Jews directing woke/progressive ideologies to harm society is part of the Great Replacement theory, though in that narrative Muslims are part of the progressive mob.
In fact the original image, found on 4chan dating back to at least 2017 (in both June and November), did not feature a Muslim warrier at all, but rather a pagan. It also featured the white supremacist symbol of a Sonnenrad (black sun) overlaying the sun in the background.
The added Muslim warrier seems to be a combination of a photograph of the helmet with the deep red material (possibly taken from Saladin’s army in the 2005 film “Kingdom of Heaven”, see image below) and one or more other images combined to create the rest of the figure.
The posters comment “This is the only way to stop them” in the context of the two warriors, may indicate an endorsement of violence against Jews. The Crusades often involved deadly attacks on Jewish communities. The horde of progressives is portrayed as dangerous, justifying a violent response from the armed warriors.
Conclusion
This user’s account is dedicated to promoting antisemitism. That is just about all it does. Such accounts should be closed as they contribute nothing positive to the platforms and break community standards routinely.
Take action:
Take a minute to view this account’s latest content and report it to X. Once you have done so you can also report it to our Fight Against Hate reporting tool. This will allow us to track the number of reports and whether X takes action on it. If they don’t, we can follow up with them.