By Joshua Sampson
In this briefing, we examine posts from three New Zealand-based users on X (Twitter) and show how they engage in antisemitism. The briefing focuses on X, which the Online Hate Prevention Institute has shown to be a major source of antisemitism both before and after October 7.
Individual 1
Linking Israel Hate with Jew Hate
This X user from New Zealand has posted pro-Palestine content that has not crossed into antisemitism, such as the example shown below:
However, analysis of their other posts has shown their discourse in support of Palestine become antisemitic, thereby linking their pro-Palestine and anti-Israel stance with Jew hatred. In the post below, the same user accuses the Israeli Ambassador to New Zealand of being a “pig jew baby-killing coward”.
In this post, there are traditional antisemitic tropes being applied to an Israeli, in addition to the explicit use of the word “Jew” rather than “Israeli” or “Zionist”. The term “pig jew” is a slur that dehumanizes Jews, and the use of the words “jew lies” feeds into traditional antisemitic ideas that Jews are dishonest and not trustworthy. It is clear that the X user attacks the Ambassador for being a Jew, rather than attacking the policies that his government enacts.
The next post also connects anti-Israel ideology with hatred of all Jews. The accusation that “Jews are the real nazis” is an example of antisemitic Holocaust inversion. This accusation uses a known traumatic experience for the Jewish people to specifically target the only Jewish state. Calling Jews “baby killing coward pigs” is again overtly antisemitic language leaning into traditional antisemitic tropes, such as blood libel. The original post the X user responded to was about Israel and the IDF and not Jews. However, this user took the opportunity to use Israel’s actions to justify their hatred of all Jews.
Incitement to Violence
This next post uses the same overtly antisemitic attacks on Jews in response to the actions of Israel but goes a step further, saying “jews go get on trains like you coward jews did before and will do again”.
This post refers to the trains that transported Jews to concentration and death camps during the Holocaust. Individual 1 glorifies the Holocaust and calls for another one, which amounts to incitement to violence.
Individual 2
Antizionist content
In response to an unverified claim that Zionists threw rats at pro-Palestine protestors, Individual 2 comments that Zionists are terrorists. This comment problematically shares unverified accusations, unfairly equates the actions of a small group as representative of all Zionists and calls all Zionists (and thus the majority of Jews) terrorists. While not explicitly antisemitic, the unfair and intentional demonisation of Zionists (who represent a majority of Jews)
when it would likely not be applied in the same way to other groups is hateful and crosses the line into antisemitism.
Leading to incitement to violence
In this post, Individual 2 responds to a thread about Zionists with the comment “Unfortunately he survived compulsory military conscription”. Calling for / wishing for the death of anyone is societally agreed to be unacceptable and the fact that Individual 2 feels comfortable doing so for a Zionist when they likely wouldn’t for anyone else they oppose politically is evidence of the antisemitic double standard that is held against Israel. While Individual 2 does not actually call for anyone to kill this Zionist, the suggestion that they are unhappy he is alive could certainly be seen as calling for someone to change this. Thus this post should be considered on the borderline of Inciting antisemitic violence.
Individual 3
Individual 3’s bio describes themselves as an “anti-Zionist” and declares “Free Palestine!”. However, investigating their posts and replies reveals an ideology that is not just pro-Palestine and anti-Zionist, but rather one that is deeply and violently antisemitic.
Violence towards Zionists
Some of Individual 3’s content attacks or calls for violence against Zionists. The reply below calls Zionists “spiteful and hate filled creatures” and thereby demumanises and demonises them. This dehumanisation is used – as dehumanisation often is – to justify the supposed sentiment that “the world wants Zionists erased”. This justifies violence towards Zionists (“erasing” an ideology is almost always a reference to violent erasure or erasure by force, not simply convincing people to abandon it).
Dehumanisation and endorsement of violence towards people simply on the basis of a political ideology is not acceptable. Furthermore, the word “Zionist” is often used as a code-word for “Jew” and this reply (and other similar ones) could be seen to dehumanise and endorse violence towards Jews in general and not just Zionists.
Antisemitic generalisations
Individual 3 makes several posts that are antisemitic, often in relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict. In the thread below, someone (no evidence that they are a Jew, but clearly an Israel supporter) makes a post about Gazans and Palestinians. In response, Individual 3 accuses them of lying because “all Jews are liars”. This is clearly an antisemitic statement, and it comes in the context of trying to discredit an Israel supporter.
In response, another user asks Individual 3 if they have ever met a Jewish person in real life (“IRL”). Individual 3 responds that it is “unfortunate” that they have because “they (Jews) are all awful people”. Yet again, this generalisation is a clearly antisemitic statement.
Violence towards Jews
Later on in the same thread someone suggests that Individual 3 should change their bio to “Jew-Hater” given the antisemitic statements they made earlier. In response Individual 3 simply replies “Adolf was right”. In this instance “Adolf” likely refers to Adolf Hitler. Usage of the term “Hitler was right” since October 7 has spiked. “Adolf/Hitler was right” is an example of both Holocaust glorification and incitement to violence.
In another post (below), Individual 3 declares that “the whole world wants to see Jews suffer after what you’ve [Jews] done in Gaza”. There are a wealth of issues with this statement. Firstly is the attempt to blame all Jews for the actions of the Israeli government. Holding all Jews accountable for the actions of Israel is antisemitic. This is then used to justify calls for Jews (all of them – not just Israelis or Zionists) to “suffer”. It is unclear exactly what kind of suffering Individual 3 intends, but the implication is one of violence (especially in the context of their previous post glorifying the Holocaust). Finally, the use of “the whole world” (as seen earlier) tries to normalise this individual’s violent opinion towards Jews.
Individual 3 is pro-Palestine (which in an of itself is not antisemitic) and violently anti-Zionist (which amounts to extremism). Beyond this, they are also blatantly antisemitic and incite violence towards Jews. It seems that this individual could be using their pro-Palestine, anti-Zionist identity to justify or attempt to mask their violent antisemitism.
Conclusion
Being pro-Palestine or advocating for the rights of Palestinians is not antisemitic. However, in this briefing we have illustrated some examples of when individuals have expressed pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel views whilst promoting explicit, overt, and sometimes violent, antisemitism.