A Month of TikTok taught taught me the ten ways it spreads wild anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about the Israel-Hamas war

 

No  calls for genocide here!

I’ve been on TikTok for the last month trying to understand how the social media site handles posts about the Israel-Hamas war. This came about because after the war broke out my niece asked me to educate people on the conflict. I usually post on TikTok, but I had a broken arm, so I decided just to comment. War sucks, but I do admit to a bias, I think Hamas must be destroyed along with all the terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the Middle East. There are so many conflicts Yemen, 377,000 dead, Syria, 306,000 dead, and Lebanon 150,000 dead, to name a few. Terrorists managed to gain control in Iran and Afghanistan. Terrorist groups don’t try to protect civilians, their main focus it to kill civilians and anyone who opposes them.

I have been to Israel four times and seen the transformation of the country into a modern technological powerhouse. It is not perfect but Jews, Druze, Christians and Bahia manage to live together in peace. It is the only country in the Middle East which allows religious freedom. I am also a history major and spent a lot of time learning about the region. If something caught my attention, I would investigate further using credible sources.

I am happy to share my top ten observations from the thousands of posts I watched. The posts were from Israel, Europe, ex-military, Iranians, Americans and anyone whose content I learned something from. If you look through my reposts at @carabertoia you can see my best of collection. There are some great contributors out there. I included links to many creators points so you can also enjoy their work.

1.      From the beginning of this war even before Israel invaded, I was curious at the lack of pressure in TikTok videos calling on Hamas to return the hostages. If this had happened to any other country, I think the calls would be loud and clear. In fact, from the first day, they were calling the attacks resistance. Since when is it permissible to classify terrible acts of atrocity resistance? If it happened to their family, would they feel the same way? https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8mRMB76/     

2.      Very few people on TikTok realize Gaza was under the control of Egypt not Israel in 1948, and wasn’t occupied by Israel. In 1967 they won Gaza in a war, and in 2005 they left, but in 2007 Gaza elected Hamas and started bombing Israel. If Israel had been the occupiers there would have been no Hamas government, and they would have known where the 300 miles of tunnels were. There was a naval blockade to stop weapons from coming in, wouldn’t you do that to if people were firing rockets at you. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8uBdpNu/

3.      Many people have heard about the Nakba, but few realize a million Jews were ethnically cleansed from Arab countries in the Middle East after 1948 either by murder or expulsion. They lost their homes of over 3000 years with no compensation. No one has ever advocated for them, and they have no right of return.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8mRNrck/     

4.      Somehow people think there were no Jews in Israel before 1948 even though they wrote the Old Testament in the land of Israel. Palestine is not the name of a people but of a place where Jews, Christians, Druze, and Muslims lived. In the 19^th and 20^th centuries Jews from Europe settled there but so did Egyptians and Syrians. Like in most countries in the world there were migrations of people across the region with all the tensions amongst groups that entails. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8mdCMKy/

5.      Most people on TikTok seem to think an independent Gaza would be some kind of Islamic paradise absolutely ignoring the brutality that already exists under Sharia law there now. Female circumcisions is practiced there as well as honor killing and child marriages. I’ve heard women in the United States say they want to date Hamas members and be taken hostage by them. I hope they get to fulfill their dreams.    https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8ushVF5/  

6.      One of the main talking points is the children, don’t you care about the children. But they only mean the Palestinian children, and when I ask if their prayers include Israeli children they deflect. It is my litmus test. They never blame Hamas for this war, the only ones who can actually save the children by returning the hostages. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8mdQ2Ws/ 

7.      Most people hear the word genocide shouted over and over by Palestinian supporters. But most of these people don’t realize there is ethnic cleansing going on, but it is by Arab countries. Besides the numbers of Jews going down to almost zero, the Christian population have plummeted, the Yazidis, Baha’is in Iran, and atheists. And talk about apartheid Jews can’t enter Gaza while there are two million Muslims in Israel. They also talk about Israel being a colonial state while they are sitting in America another colonial state. But I haven’t seen any of them giving up their homes to Native Americans. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8mRNWxP/ 

8.      Western organizations don’t realize it but by not condemning Hamas they are setting new standards for warfare. Next time someone commits the atrocities like Hamas did on October 7 and they claim to be a resistance group this will come back to bite us! Muslim school children in France already beheaded a teacher. He showed a cartoon of the Prophet Muhamad during a class on freedom of expression. If Muslims object to that maybe France isn’t the country for them. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8mdWjbB/

9.      The have many forums called TikTok live where people are supposed to be able to discuss the war from opposing points of view. Mostly it is ill-informed people spouting wild conspiracy theories that could be disproved with a three-minute Google search. For example, some conspiracies about October 7^th. It never happened, there were no rapes or beheaded babies, no terrorism at all, or the ever popular the IDF killed all the people. So, where did the hostages come from? The hostages were treated so well hostages didn’t want to come home. Really? Israel did it because they want the oil in Gaza. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8mRNjo8/ 

10.  Throughout all of the news casts well-funded shadow groups keep appearing such as my favorite Jewish Voices for Peace, an anti-Zionist, anti-Semitic group. They would never get so much attention if they didn’t have the word Jewish in their name. The condescending and insulting news media always trot them out to say, not all Jews agree with Israel. I can’t find out how many Jewish members they have, you don’t even have to be Jewish to start a chapter. But betraying your people will get you so much more publicity. Where do they get their funding, and why do they need millions for such a small organization? I bet some people are making a great living out of trying to destroy Israel. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8ukoMA8/

I’ve heard the debate, TikTok has removed so many Pro Palestinian sites. Many of those sites openly call for genocide and spew hate and conspiracy theories. But my experience has been quite the opposite. I’ve reported vile anti-Semitic remarks worthy of a good Nazi and been told they don’t violate community guidelines. So many time people on the site would say, not all Palestinians support Hamas. I tried to repost some screen shots from a poll sponsored by the Arab World for Research and Development that showed 80% support for Hamas. It was taken down in five minutes for violating community guidelines. I do believe TikTok is Pro Palestinian. They love anything that will divide Americans. If you think the Chinese allow their citizens to post such controversial views, you probably think there isn't Sharia law in Gaza.

For everyone who thinks it is about Israel and not Judaism if you could read the vile comments, I received over the last month you would know it is all about Jews! I can’t and won’t repeat most of them here but just go to any pro-Israel site on TikTok and read the comments. It seems like many of the accounts are bots with few followers, thousands of them. Who is paying them? I used to think these people would be more civil in public but I don’t believe that anymore. The more they say it is only about Zionism while being anti-Semitic the more they convince me Jews need the country of Israel. Sometimes I feel like I am a Jew in Germany in 1938 but now we are fighting back, and most of the American people have our back. Remember the leader of Hamas came out the other day and said there should be terrorist attacks in The United States, Britain, and the rest of the west. They don’t want to just destroy Israel they want to destroy our way of life.

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