How antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories spiraled out of control

On the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, antisemitic conspiracy theories blaming Jews and Israel for orchestrating the attacks have spread on social media. Liora Raz, CEO of StopAntisemitism, explains that the cause is the lack of mandatory study of the topic in U.S. schools and the viral spread of lies on social media, especially after October 7.

On the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda, social media has seen a sharp rise in the spread of antisemitic conspiracy theories blaming Jews and Israel for the attacks. Liora Raz, CEO of the American organization StopAntisemitism, explains in an interview the nature of this phenomenon. According to her, the key problem is the lack of mandatory study of the 9/11 topic in schools in 48 out of 50 U.S. states. This creates a "perfect storm": young people do not receive facts about Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, but daily encounter lies on social media, particularly the theory about the "five dancing Israelis." Raz emphasizes that this episode was investigated by the FBI, and no evidence of Israeli involvement in the attacks was found. She also notes that real footage of celebrations on 9/11 captured Palestinians, not Israelis. The article describes modern methods of spreading conspiracy theories, including the use of the juice emoji as a veiled hint at Jews to bypass social media algorithms.