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Seven Social Media Influencers Sharing Anti-Israel Hatred Online
People gather as smoke rises from a mobile shop in Sidon, Lebanon as Hezbollah communication devices explode across the country on Sept. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hassan Hankir
Last week, thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah terrorists across Lebanon appeared to combust spontaneously, injuring thousands of Hezbollah terrorists. The targeted Israeli operation also caused a wave of fake news and misinformation being promoted by anti-Israel influencers across social media.
Seven of the influencers peddling these lies appear below.
1. Bassem Youssef is a comedian and former Egyptian TV host. In a recent post on X, he claimed that Israel is capable of detonating phones and tablets whenever and wherever they wish. This claim is entirely false, as Israel possesses no such technology. He’s also spread countless anti-Israel propaganda before and after the operation targeting Hezbollah.
And suddenly my phone , our security system , my kids tablets are time bombs that detonate at the whims of one country . You win Israel . Not a single politician or late night show talks about this ? None of that worth the news ? Nothing “funny” can come out of it ? The whole…
— Bassem Youssef (@Byoussef) September 18, 2024
2. Jackson Hinkle, an influencer who’s been removed from every social media platform except for X for promoting misinformation, posted to his 2.7 million followers the false claim that “Israel killed mostly civilians in their pager attack, and ZERO members of Hezbollah’s senior command.”.
Both Iranian state media and Hezbollah themselves have confirmed that several Hezbollah terrorists have died.
Israel killed mostly civilians in their pager attack, and ZERO members of Hezbollah’s senior command.
ISRAEL IS A TERRORIST STATE!
— Jackson Hinkle (@jacksonhinklle) September 17, 2024
3. Influencer Syrian Girl (@Partisangirl) posted on X that Israel “didn’t target Hezbollah members. They targeted everyone with a pager…”. This is fake news; only the pagers belonging to Hezbollah operatives were reported to have been affected. Her post has since appeared to be deleted.
The Zionist terrorist didn’t target Hezbollah members. They targeted everyone with a pager including doctors and nurses, killing a child. This is a nation wide terrorist attack. pic.twitter.com/9ojtlDMuHg
— Syrian Girl (@Partisangirl) September 17, 2024
4. Sarah (@sahouraxo), an influencer on X and a self-described Independent Lebanese geopolitical commentator with over 622k followers, claims, “This is an Israeli terrorist attack against Lebanon and its citizens.” A false claim: only Hezbollah operatives were targeted, not Lebanese civilians.
This is an Israeli terrorist attack against Lebanon and its citizens.
Devices exploded among ordinary civilians in streets, homes, institutions, and shops, killing 8 people, including a child, and injuring over 3,000 across the country.
This is pure, unadulterated terrorism.
— sarah (@sahouraxo) September 17, 2024
5. Daniel Haqiqatjou, founder of the antisemitic website MuslimSkeptic.com, made several false claims in a series of posts on X, where he claimed the attack targeted innocent Lebanese civilians and went on a rant accusing Israel of “flooding all the Muslim countries it trades with with “ticking time bomb products,” such as drinks, beauty products, pharmaceuticals, and appliances.
All the Zionist news outlets are spamming that the pagers belonged to “terrorists,” so that confirms that these were innocent Lebanese civilians that the Jewish state has targeted.
— Daniel Haqiqatjou (@Haqiqatjou) September 17, 2024
He also made the false claim that “No Muslim has ever committed terrorism via mass-distributed consumer goods.” Users on X were quick to fact-check this, adding the context that in 1978, Palestinian extremists claimed responsibility for distributing Israeli oranges, lemons, and grapefruit that had been tainted with mercury.
No Muslim has ever committed terrorism via mass distributed consumer goods.
This is a new type of terrorism invented and executed for the first time by the only Jewish state.
— Daniel Haqiqatjou (@Haqiqatjou) September 18, 2024
6. Nicholas Fuentes, a far-right American political commentator and live streamer known for promoting white supremacist and antisemitic views, shared this antisemitic conspiracy post to X (it, too, has since been deleted).
If you buy anything from Jews there is a small chance that they have hidden remote controlled explosives inside of it that they can detonate from Israel at any time to blow up your face, hands, or legs.
— Nicholas J. Fuentes (@NickJFuentes) September 18, 2024
7. Owen Jones, a writer and YouTuber with over 1.1 million followers on X, did not say anything overtly false but made several comments referring to this precise and targeted operation as “an obscene terrorist attack.”
Leave aside that these pagers are used by doctors and nurses.
If Hezbollah blew up the phones or pagers of IDF soldiers, whether or not on duty, inevitably killing and maiming children and bystanders – he’d denounce this as an obscene terrorist attack.pic.twitter.com/Io1fQFsOKB https://t.co/3cen505orm
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) September 17, 2024
Of course, Israel’s attack was the opposite of the terrorism directed at civilians by Hezbollah and Hamas. Unlike those two groups, Israel only targeted terrorist operatives. But these seven biased influencers will never tell you that.
HonestReporting is a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Seven Social Media Influencers Sharing Anti-Israel Hatred Online first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Trump Is Lying When He Speaks of Peace
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with government officials in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2025. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Donald Trump on Saturday of lying when the US president said during his Gulf tour this week that he wanted peace in the region.
On the contrary, said Khamenei, the United States uses its power to give “10-ton bombs to the Zionist (Israeli) regime to drop on the heads of Gaza’s children.”
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after departing the United Arab Emirates on Friday that Iran had to move quickly on a US proposal for its nuclear program or “something bad’s going to happen.”
His remarks, said Khamenei, “aren’t even worth responding to.” They are an “embarrassment to the speaker and the American people,” Khamenei added.
“Undoubtedly, the source of corruption, war, and conflict in this region is the Zionist regime — a dangerous, deadly cancerous tumor that must be uprooted; it will be uprooted,” he said at an event at a religious center in Tehran, according to state media.
Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Trump speaks about peace while simultaneously making threats.
“Which should we believe?” Pezeshkian said at a naval event in Tehran. “On the one hand, he speaks of peace and on the other, he threatens with the most advanced tools of mass killing.”
Tehran would continue Iran-US nuclear talks but is not afraid of threats. “We are not seeking war,” Pezeshkian said.
While Trump said on Friday that Iran had a US proposal about its nuclear program, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in a post on X said Tehran had not received any such proposal. “There is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to (uranium) enrichment for peaceful purposes…” he said.
Araqchi warned on Saturday that Washington’s constant change of stance prolongs nuclear talks, state TV reported.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that America repeatedly defines a new framework for negotiations that prolongs the process,” the broadcast quoted Araqchi as saying.
Pezeshkian said Iran would not “back down from our legitimate rights”.
“Because we refuse to bow to bullying, they say we are source of instability in the region,” he said.
A fourth round of Iran-U.S. talks ended in Oman last Sunday. A new round has not been scheduled yet.
The post Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Trump Is Lying When He Speaks of Peace first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Confirms New Gaza Ceasefire Talks with Israel in Qatar on Saturday
Doha, Qatar. Photo: StellarD via Wikimedia Commons.
A new round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel is underway in Qatar’s Doha, Hamas official Taher al-Nono told Reuters on Saturday.
He said the two sides were discussing all issues without “pre-conditions.”
Nono said Hamas was “keen to exert all the effort needed” to help mediators make the negotiations a success, adding there was “no certain offer on the table.”
The negotiations come despite Israel preparing to expand operations in the Gaza Strip as they seek “operational control” in some areas of the war-torn enclave.
The return to negotiations also comes after US President Donald Trump ended a Middle East tour on Friday with no apparent progress towards a new ceasefire, although he acknowledged Gaza’s growing hunger crisis and the need for aid deliveries.
The post Hamas Confirms New Gaza Ceasefire Talks with Israel in Qatar on Saturday first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: ICC’s Khan Goes on Administrative Leave Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan speaks during an interview with Reuters in The Hague, Netherlands, Feb. 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
i24 News – Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan has stepped down temporarily as an investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct by United Nations investigators is nearing its final phase, Reuters reported on Friday citing sources from the international court.
Khan allegedly forced sexual intercourse upon a member of staff on multiple occasions, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, linking the allegations to Khan’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant.
A statement is expected later today announcing that Khan is going on administrative leave, according to a source in the prosecutor’s office.
The post Report: ICC’s Khan Goes on Administrative Leave Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe first appeared on Algemeiner.com.