“Do you want it darker?” Leonard Cohen asks in his haunting song “You Want It Darker.”
Anyone scrolling through social media exactly a week ago, on Sept. 11, could have felt that darkness. On the 25th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil, countless posts and comments revived antisemitic conspiracy theories falsely claiming that Jews or Israel were behind the attacks carried out by al-Qaida.
Liora Rez discusses antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories
Such theories have circulated online for years, but they increasingly appear beyond the internet’s fringes. Where Jews were once falsely accused of poisoning wells or using children’s blood to make matzah, modern antisemitic conspiracy theories often recast major disasters as covert operations by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.
Some of the material circulating online uses imagery reminiscent of the Nazi propaganda newspaper Der Stürmer, depicting Orthodox Jews with sidelocks and exaggerated noses, drawing on longstanding antisemitic stereotypes. Other posts use a juice-box emoji as coded shorthand for Jews, exploiting the similarity in English between the words “juice” and “Jews” in an apparent effort to evade automated moderation.
“It's a massive problem,” said Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, a U.S.-based organization that campaigns against antisemitism. “So sadly, it's been happening year over year, more and more. Antisemitic theories circulating on social media at 100 miles an hour every day, day in and day out, specifically post-October 7.”
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Antisemitic comment falsely claims Jews carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in a Mossad operation
(Photo: from Facebook)
Rez said younger Americans who lack knowledge about the Sept. 11 attacks can be particularly vulnerable to false narratives online.
“Students, kids, young adults, young professionals, are not learning that al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, radical Islam – that ideology, those individuals – were behind the 9/11 attacks,” she said. “What they are seeing is just complete lunacy on social media, which stems particularly from a rumor, or actually a lie, that turned out to be concerning five dancing Israelis on a rooftop. That it was completely false.”
Rez said education is central to combating such misinformation, arguing that relatively few states require comprehensive instruction about Sept. 11.
Provocative poll posted on X shows troubling responses about the Sept. 11 attacks
(Photo: from X)
“If you look at the United States, only two states mandate 9/11 education, and those are Arizona and Florida. There's a handful of other states that suggest to teach it in the classrooms. But again, there's no strict laws mandating education around the September 11 attacks,” she said. “You take the fact that there's absolutely zero education in 48 out of 50 states in America, excluding Arizona and Florida, combine it with the antisemitic rumors and lies that you see online, and it creates the perfect storm of what you are seeing.”
The ‘dancing Israelis’ conspiracy theory
Screenshots of social media posts and comments reviewed for this article show how the conspiracy theory continues to circulate. Some posts were later removed following reports that they spread misinformation or promoted hatred, but similar claims remain widespread.
When the IDF’s official Facebook page and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official account posted messages commemorating the Sept. 11 attacks, numerous commenters repeated the false claim that Israel was responsible. Similar comments appeared beneath Sept. 11 posts by Americans with no particular connection to Israel.
Antisemitic image posted in response to social media content about the Sept. 11 attacks
(Photo: from Facebook)
Like many conspiracy theories, the so-called “dancing Israelis” narrative begins with a real event before layering unsupported claims onto it.
On Sept. 11, 2001, after the attack on the World Trade Center had begun, a New Jersey woman reported seeing several young Israelis photographing themselves with the burning towers in the background. Some were standing on or near a moving van. Their demeanor appeared cheerful to her, raising her suspicions and prompting her to contact police.
Five Israelis were subsequently detained for more than two months and investigated by the FBI. Investigators ultimately found no evidence that they had participated in the attacks or had advance knowledge of them.
Image shared online falsely blames Jews and Israel for the Sept. 11 attacks
(Photo: from Facebook)
Box cutters were found among their belongings. The Israelis said they needed the tools to open boxes because they worked for a moving company. The five eventually returned to Israel after authorities determined that they had violated U.S. immigration laws. One later said their purpose in taking photographs that day had been to document what was happening.
The episode nevertheless became the basis for one of the most persistent conspiracy theories surrounding Sept. 11. Some conspiracy theorists claim the five were Mossad agents celebrating the success of an Israeli plot. Others characterize the attacks as a supposed “false flag” operation — an attack carried out in a way intended to conceal the perpetrator and place blame on someone else — designed to draw the United States into wars against Israel’s enemies in the Middle East.
The evidence established by U.S. investigators contradicts those claims. The FBI identified the 19 hijackers as members of al-Qaida who had been trained by the terrorist organization and carried out the operation under bin Laden’s direction. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks, including hundreds of Jews and several Israeli citizens.
Comment links the false 'dancing Israelis' conspiracy theory to a slogan associated with rebuilding after the Nova music festival massacre
(Photo: from Facebook)
Rez also pointed to television footage showing some Palestinians celebrating after news of the attacks spread, including scenes of people handing out sweets and cheering. Such footage was widely broadcast at the time, though it did not represent Palestinians as a whole.
“I remember watching Katie Couric specifically documenting this in complete dismay how people can be happy about such tragic events,” Rez said. “But again, it wasn't the Israelis that were celebrating it. We have documented video news footage of Palestinians in the West Bank, in Gaza, giving out sweets, baklava, candy, celebrating, rooting, about the fact that 3,000 Americans were massacred on that day.”
There were radical, anti-Western Muslims who celebrated Sept. 11 in real time, and now people claim Israelis celebrated it. In psychology, that is called projection.
“Correct. radicals in the Islamic world, specifically Iran and their proxies, always refer to Israel as little Satan and obviously the United States as the big Satan.”
Who is spreading these conspiracy theories?
“So sadly, we're now seeing it on both sides of the aisle. Immediately post 9/11, it was more these alt-right figures, but now, radical Islamists and lefties have really kind of piggybacked off of what these right-wing extremists have been spewing.
Comments on a Sept. 11 post use juice-box emojis as coded antisemitic references to Jews
(Photo: from Facebook)
“These people hate each other, and what they have in common is their hatred of Jews. Their goal is to stereotype the Jew as a villain, isolate the Jew, vilify the Jew, create as much hatred towards the Jew as possible.”
Some might argue that many of the people commenting on or liking this material are actually bots, so perhaps it should not be taken too seriously. What do you think?
“I completely disagree. It can start with bot networks, but people don't realize they're bot networks. They're influenced by the rather large volume of bot messaging. And they become or they start to think that this is normalized, this is what the mass populations are saying.
“Bot networks and those that direct them, they're very smart. They're looking to influence not a 55-year-old who's already set in their opinion or a 40-year-old. They're influencing 25 and under, where that frontal cortex is still not mature; people are very easily influenced, and they try to convert their ideas to more radical ideologies.
Antisemitic image shared online links Jews to the crucifixion of Jesus, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the Sept. 11 attacks
(Photo: from Facebook)
“And it's not just antisemitism. It's anti-Western society, anti-capitalism.”
Making antisemitism carry a cost
StopAntisemitism has adopted a strategy centered on publicly identifying people it says engage in antisemitic conduct.
“Our main concern is everyday community members, whether it's physicians, attorneys, those that do hair and makeup and come into our homes, for simchas, whether it's educators whose teaching and influencing our children,” Rez said. “We're interested in those individuals who are spewing hate, whether it's publicly or online.
Image shared on X falsely claims Israel carried out the Sept. 11 attacks
(Photo: from X)
“So that's where we come in and create consequences for antisemites, create consequences for those that demonize and propagate hate towards Israel, towards the Jewish people, and ultimately bring it to the attention of their communities, their employers, so on and so forth. No, you're not going to be able to spew hatred against the Jewish people without any type of consequence.”
Journalists constantly face a dilemma: Should we report on false conspiracy theories, or is it better to ignore them so we don’t amplify them?
“Great question. Sticking our heads in the sand is no longer working. Addressing every lie is needed, especially when they are spread at high volumes, such as the ‘five dancing Israelis.’
“There's clearly documented evidence to dispute it. And there's, again, documented evidence of Palestinians dancing and cheering during the 9/11 attacks. So, no, I think these conspiracy theories need to be disputed head on.”