Cyberwell warns of antisemitic conspiracy theories tied to European wildfires

A new wave of antisemitic conspiracy theories is spreading across social media as devastating wildfires burn across Europe, with online users falsely accusing Jews of deliberately starting the blazes for financial and political gain, according to a report released Monday by the NGO Cyberwell.

The organization warned that the claims are part of what it described as a recurring pattern in which major disasters quickly become vehicles for spreading centuries-old antisemitic myths.

The latest narratives have appeared in multiple languages and across several countries, blaming Jews for wildfires burning this summer in France, Spain, Norway, Greece, Holland, Germany and Italy.

Cyberwell CEO and Founder Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor said that “the same scapegoating stories, once popular in Nazi propaganda during the Third Reich, now trend on every major social media platform after a crisis. Any major event can become a vehicle for blaming Jews online.”

“Whether the story involves a wildfire, a disease outbreak, a shooting, or another international crisis, we repeatedly see the same conspiracy theories emerge within hours. The details change, but the underlying message does not: Jews are maliciously portrayed as secretly orchestrating disasters or profiting from human suffering.

This pattern demonstrates how antisemitism continuously adapts to the news cycle while recycling centuries-old myths.”

Cyberwell, which was founded to combat online anti-Semitism, said it identified thousands of posts promoting the false narrative that Jewish people deliberately started the fires in order to benefit from the destruction.

The posts appeared in English, French and Spanish, and content blaming Jews for fires in Norway alone has been viewed more than 2 million times, “helping transform an isolated conspiracy into a broader wave of antisemitic content,” according to the organization.

“CyberWell found that bad actors and antisemites repeatedly inserted Jews into breaking news through familiar antisemitic tropes portraying them as secretly responsible for disasters or as profiting from human suffering,” said a statement from the company.

“As false claims spread, posts increasingly incorporated dehumanizing language, calls to expel Jews and well-known antisemitic imagery, including the ‘Happy Merchant’ caricature.”

The report added that the content reflects “antisemitic conspiracy frameworks recognized under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, which include collective accusations against Jews and conspiratorial claims of hidden Jewish control.”

The conspiracy theories are not limited to Europe. Anecdotal social media posts observed by ALL ISRAEL NEWS staff during the massive wildfires affecting the U.S. Pacific Northwest in recent days have also promoted claims and memes alleging that Israel's Mossad intelligence agency was behind the natural disaster.

Similar conspiracies blaming Jews for other recent natural disasters around the world have also been documented by nonprofit organizations and law enforcement agencies.

As previously reported by ALL ISRAEL NEWS, influencers on both the political Left and Right also accused Israel of orchestrating last week's migrant surge into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa, when thousands of Moroccans, mostly young men, crossed the border.

Right-wing influencer Candace Owens posted on 𝕏 in response to the crisis, “Spain, stay strong. The world knows what is happening and exactly who is behind it.”