Between April and September 2024, a group of New Zealand university students were hired by the Astor Foundation and seconded to the Online Hate Prevention Institute for training and management in a project to collect online antisemitism, particularly content originating in New Zealand. The full report is presented here and can also be downloaded.
In total 1217 items of data were collected with 884 (73%) being content that originated or was reposted by people in New Zealand. The data came from 10 social media platforms. 146.5 hours of data collection was carried out. Different amounts of time were spent on different platforms.
The sample of data:
As different amounts of time were spent on the different platforms, we need to normalise the data to an hourly rate of collection to make it comparable. The Nominal Daily Collection Rate (NDCR) is the hourly collection rate (the average items per hour), multiplied by 8 hours (i.e. one working day). This shows antisemitism was easiest to find on Telegram, followed by Reddit, then X. The platform with the lowest rate of antisemitism was LinkedIn.
The data was categorised into 27 specific categories of antisemitism, derived from the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, and these categories can be grouped into 4 major types of antisemitism. The percentage of the data classified into each major type is shown below. Note that a single item of data can be in multiple categories and therefore multiple major types. Aggregating across the platforms can be misleading as there are substantial differences between the platforms.
Limiting the sample to the data that was posted by people in New Zealand shows an even stronger difference by platform. The most common form of antisemitism by New Zealanders on LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads, Reddit and Facebook is Israel related content. Over 75% of all the antisemitism seen on Instagram involved Israel is some way. This contrasts sharply with Telegram and Gab where the content largely came from the far-right and was mainly traditional antisemitism with very little Israel related antisemitism. On X, where the majority of the content was sourced, traditional antisemitism and Israel antisemitism each account of about half of the content, but only 14.9% of the data involves both, whereas on Instagram 30.2% of the data involves both (which means 68.4% of the traditional antisemitism also involves some element of Israel related antisemitism).
Looking deeper at the specific categories of Israel related antisemitism, the most common form on most of the mainstream platforms (except Reddit and LinkedIn) is “Denying Jewish people self-determination, e.g., by claiming Israel’s existence is racist”. On Meta’s platform (Facebook, Instagram and to a lesser extent Threads) “Holding Jews collectively responsible for Israel’s actions” was also significantly higher than other antisemitic narratives. In fact, on Facebook (and LinkedIn) it was the most common antisemitic narrative. Also occurring frequently were “Describing Israel or Israelis using antisemitic words or imagery (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel)”.
Traditional antisemitism is still very significant as well. Focusing just on the mainstream platforms, the role of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the promotion of a world Jewish conspiracy is alarmingly high on LinkedIn, Threads, and Reddit. The specific form of this alleging Jewish control of governments is also very high on LinkedIn and Reddit, as is dehumanising of Jews.
Israel Related Examples from New Zealand
We adopt the position that criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic (IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism). Our data excludes such content. Our “Israel related” type of antisemitism instead is made up of content that falls into specific well documented types of antisemitism.
The specific category of “Denying Jewish people self-determination, e.g., by claiming Israel’s existence is racist” is a form of antisemitism that was created by the KGB during the Cold War and resulting in UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 in 1975. The antisemitism inherent in this position was recognised by the UN and a result Resolution 3379 is one of only two UN General Assembly resolutions to have even been repealed (Manor, 2010).
The first example of this is very blatantly trying to promote the now rejected “Zionism is Racism” narrative created by the Soviets. Rather than criticism Israeli government policy, it focuses on “Zionism” and seeks to define Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, as evil. It even goes so far as to accuse Zionism, the Jewish movement for the basic right the UN charter gives all people to self-determination, of being a form of fascism and supremacy, and makes a dog whistle to concentration camps, all efforts at Holocaust inversion.
This example, discussed in our article “Denial of Jewish people’s right to self determination” (OHPI, 2024), uses a different approach based on a false (Goldman, 2013) narrative that seeks to deny the very identity of Jewish people. It also suggests Palestinians are “without sin” which seems to be reference to Jewish people being with sin, perhaps a reference to claims of deicide. The post argues Israel should not exist, and its existence is a form of racism against what it refers to as Indigenous Palestinians. Denying the identity of Jewish people is a form of racism no different from seeking to deny a Māori person their identity as an Indigenous person.
Another example, now flagged by Facebook as disinformation, claims Israel isn’t a nation but a criminal organisation. This also denies Israel’s right to exist through demonization. It does this using an AI generated fake Time magazine cover. The blood on the mouth of what looks like an AI generated picture of Prime Minister Netanyahu, holding two children with blood on their faces, also looks like a reference to the blood libel, suggesting he is killing children to drink their blood. This is a traditional form of antisemitism, but here is combined with the idea “therefore Israel should not exist”.
The example below is deeply antisemitism using traditional antisemitism, but also calls for Death to Israel. This is not criticism of Israeli policy, but blatant antisemitism and support of terrorism and violence. Note it was shared on October 11, just days after the October 7 terrorist attack. Probably written by an American, it was forwarded to a New Zealand group on Telegram.
This next example doesn’t specifically mention Jews, but by “supporters in the west” it is likely to be taken as a reference to Jewish communities. It is explicitly wishing for violence in countries like New Zealand and is posted by someone in New Zealand.
The specific category of “Holding Jews collectively responsible for Israel’s actions” can incite violence in New Zealand itself against visibly Jewish targets, both people (for example Orthodox Jews in traditional attire or any Jewish person wearing a Kippah) and buildings (from Jewish community buildings to houses that are identified as belonging to Jews).
The first example is a self-identifying New Zealand nationalist account. It uses a news article about events in the Middle East to call Jews “murdering scum”. This is directly holding the Jewish community in Jew Zealand responsible for the actions of Israeli forces. Or at least using this as an excuse to incite against the New Zealand Jewish community.
The next examples is a reposting of material from another (probably American) account which promotes a false narrative about “Zionist Gangs” suggesting Jewish students should be a target. It’s reposting by a New Zealander can impact the safety of Jewish students at universities in New Zealand.
This next example posted by a New Zealand account based account drops the pretence it is discussing Israel at all and simply calls for another Holocaust. It is not only a Holocaust inversion, but the use of it to call for another Holocaust to complete the genocide of the Jewish people.
Another example uses a newspaper article from the New Zealand Herald to undermine concerns about antisemitism in New Zealand schools, hold Jews responsible for the actions of Israel, and thereby claim (through conflation) that concerns over antisemitism are Jews playing the victim as they attack. Read another way this is arguing that antisemitism against Jewish children in New Zealand schools should be an acceptable response to Israeli actions.
Another posting of a news article about antisemitism in schools in New Zealand let to a comment attacking the Christians who support the Jewish community in opposing this antisemitism. The commenter argues such people (who oppose antisemitism in schools) are supporting “Zionism, Rothschild Satanism, and genocide”. The post is deeply antisemitism and uses the excuse of the conflict in the Middle East to try normalise antisemitism in New Zealand.
None of these examples, or the others in our data, represent “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country”. The are simply antisemitic, supportive of antisemitism, and/or inciting antisemitism including potentially antisemitic violence.