Antisemitic disinformation

Seen on X/Twitter, LinkedIn, and iFunny, this antisemitic meme is an interesting study of how antisemitism is promoted.

The first thing worth noting is that the poster, in this case, is a medical doctor. The need for public trust in doctors means we, as a society, hold them to a higher standard. In Australia, regulators have highlighted the need for medical practitioners to act in a manner that maintains public trust in the profession and that “abuse or discrimination of others” in social media breaches this trust.

This particular post is not Australian. It is about the US, but posted by a medical doctor in Denmark. This highlights the way people spread hate that impacts other countries.

The post promotes a form of traditional antisemitism based on the conspiracy theory alleging Jewish control of governments. In this case, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The image has been compiled to present a false narrative, and the poster has made it explicit, stating that “FEMA, all Jews, refused to give humanitarian aid to American victims after the hurricane!” This is an antisemitic variant of more general conspiracy theories that have been causing issues for FEMA as it responds to the natural disaster. Some of these have been spread by Donald Trump.

This particular version shows 8 FEMA staff with Jewish names and claims this is who controls FEMA and they are all Jewish. Whether they are Jewish or not is actually irrelevant in this case as, while the names and pictures are real and extracted from the FEMA website’s leadership page, they are just 8 of 112 members of FEMA’s leadership team. They are not grouped together on the website, that is editing, but are each listed under the sections of leadership to which they belong. This is an example of cherry-picking those who might be Jewish and misrepresenting facts to falsely imply FEMA’s leadership is “all Jewish”.

Antisemitic conspiracy theories are common. When allegations that look like conspiracies appear, it is important to stop and fact-check them. It is especially important for medical doctors to avoid promoting racism and conspiracy theories.

How it incites further antisemitism

Antisemitic conspiracy theories can incite further antisemitic hate. Here are some comments in reply to the intiial post.

First, we have a suggestion Jews are “occupying” America and calls to remove them (the red is the doctor again).

Then we have multiple posts alledging this is all part of a “white genocide” conspiracy theory, the same theory promoted in the manifesto from the Christchurch attack in 2019:

We even get Holocaust silencing, or perhaps it is meant to be outright Holocaust denial:

Then there are the world Jewish conspiracy theories and “Talmud conspiracies”:

And Khazar conspiracy theories, which allege that the Jews aren’t even really Jews…

And so the antisemitism continues on X.