Newspaper headline calling 'genocide' protests antisemitic isn't real | Fact check
The claim: Image shows Israel newspaper headline calling 'genocide' protests antisemitic
A May 19 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows what appears to be a headline from an Israeli newspaper.
“Protesting to stop the Genocide is Antisemitic,” reads the headline purportedly published by The Times of Israel.
The supposed subhead goes into more detail.
“Protesting in universities to stop genocide and condemn Israel’s human rights violations is clearly just antisemitism and hatred for Jews and Israelis,” it reads.
The post received more than 500 likes in five days.
More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page
Our rating: Altered
The Times of Israel didn’t publish that. The image is fabricated and originated from an account that posts satirical content, but the Instagram post makes no mention of that.
Fabricated headline originated on Israel parody account
Pro-Palestinian activists set up encampments on college campuses across the U.S. in opposition to the Israel-Hamas war and its civilian death toll. While South Africa has accused Israel of genocide, Israel has denied the allegation.
But The Times of Israel did not publish a headline labeling protests against genocide as antisemitic. The image in the Instagram post is a fabrication. There is no record of that headline appearing on the newspaper’s website.
Fact check: False claim UN court found Israel violated genocide convention
Rather, the image originated in a May 18 post on X, formerly Twitter, shared by an account that describes itself as a parody of the state of Israel. Its bio states that it posts content “intended to be satirical.” Text in its profile image states, “Don’t believe us.”
The image shared by that X account includes a watermark in the lower right corner that identifies it as a parody. That watermark is missing from the version shared by the Instagram user.
The Instagram post is an example of what could be called "stolen satire," where content originally presented as satire is captured and reposted in a way that makes it appear to be authentic. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, which is what happened here.
Campus protests of the Israel-Hamas conflict have regularly spawned misinformation on social media. USA TODAY has debunked claims that an image showed a University of Mississippi student protester with a banner supporting former President Donald Trump, that Harvard University raised the Palestinian flag and that an image showed protesters in April blocking Jewish people from entering Columbia University.
USA TODAY reached out to The Times of Israel and to the Instagram user who shared the post but did not immediately receive responses.
Reuters and Check Your Fact also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
@Israellill (Internet Archive), May 18, X post
@Israellill (Internet Archive), accessed May 24, X profile
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.
USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Meta.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Headline about genocide protests, antisemitism isn't real | Fact check
