More than 1,300 antisemitic posts blame Israel, Jews for French riots – report

At least 1,384 antisemitic social media posts blamed Israel and Jews for violent riots across France, according to a Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) report published Sunday.

The report identified 816 unique accounts spreading conspiracy theories that blamed Israel, Mossad, Zionists and Jews for the unrest.

Based on searches using 25 keywords in seven languages, the research documented how antisemitic narratives portrayed the riots as a deliberate operation orchestrated by Jews and Israel, with some posts calling for the expulsion or extermination of Jews.

The unrest has been associated with protests over rising fuel prices and the high cost of living, but the report found that online conspiracy theories sought to blame Jews and Israel for the violence.

“Mossad is burning France right now,” one social media post claimed.

“Whatever’s happening in France, the root cause is actually Jewish capture of the West,” another post claimed. A separate post described “the agent of Zionism” as “leading the brown masses to destroy Paris.”

Israel was also accused of “feeding the chaos and punishing Europe,” while other accounts invoked the antisemitic conspiracy theories “Rothschild/ZOG/money” to explain the riots.

“Jews benefit from every revolution,” one post claimed.

The report also noted that the unrest affected Jewish communities in France. At least one synagogue was vandalized, while multiple businesses were looted. Rioters also torched cars and set fires in streets across French cities.

According to the research, accounts identified as Islamic generated approximately 30% of the antisemitic posts. English-language posts accounted for 69% of the anti-Jewish content and 86% of its total views.

The report also found that some of the most extreme antisemitic content was shared by 𝕏 Premium accounts with paid subscriptions.

“Across languages and ideologies, profiles on social media advance a single narrative. France’s unrest is presented not as a domestic crisis but as a deliberate operation orchestrated by Jews, Zionists or Israel,” the report showed.

“Once again, with the unfolding situation in France, we are seeing the rapid and systematic exploitation of a news event by antisemites to spread conspiracy theories against Jews and Israel,” CAM editor-in-chief Barney Breen-Portnoy warned. “The ARC’s research offers further evidence of a well-worn script used to repackage age-old antisemitic hatred for a vast modern-day digital audience."

Separately, Kan News reported that the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, David Zini, traveled to France to offer counterterrorism advice.

The latest findings reflect a broader pattern of antisemitic conspiracy theories that blame Jews or Israel for major events.

Last month, false claims portrayed the Islamist flydubai terror plot as a “Jewish” or “Israeli” false-flag operation, despite evidence pointing to a terrorist attack. The Omani pilot who stabbed the plane’s Indian captain admitted that he intended to crash the aircraft into Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.

Similar conspiracy theories have blamed Jews and Israel for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Ceuta border migrant crisis.