NEW YORK CITY (Press Release) — When ADL published its first report on 9/11 conspiracy theories in 2003, it noted that the internet allowed an “unprecedented cross-fertilization of antisemitic ideas” and that they contributed to a “new form of global antisemitism.” The report also noted that these conspiracy theories were likely to endure and “form the basis of a new antisemitic canard that will linger for decades and be used to demonize Jews and Israel.”
The report was prescient. The so-called 9/11 “truther” movement, once a niche subculture presented with a pseudoscientific veneer, has shifted over time into simplified and sweeping claims about supposed Jewish and Zionist power.
Conspiratorial claims about 9/11 have significantly evolved in the 25 years since the terror attacks of that day, becoming deeply embedded into a broader extremist and antisemitic worldview, propelled by new technologies and embraced by new generations.
Each year, dozens of antisemitic incidents tracked by ADL for the Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents include 9/11 conspiracy theories. The number grew dramatically in the past few years, from 35 such incidents in 2022 to 68 in 2025.
Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have enabled purveyors of 9/11 conspiracy theories to manufacture synthetic “proof” for their claims that Jews orchestrated the attacks and that broadly accepted narratives about the attacks are false. Social media platforms, too, facilitate the spread of conspiratorial content to new audiences.
Today, antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories are increasingly bundled with other antisemitic canards, as documented in the annual ADL Audit of Antisemitic Incidents. Significant global events, including terror attacks and wars, are inevitably claimed to be “false flag” attacks carried out at the behest of Jews or Israel, with the 9/11 attacks treated as a foundational example of these claims.
New Technologies and Trends Amplify the Spread of 9/11 Conspiracy Theories
Like Holocaust denial, antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories often serve as a gateway into antisemitism more broadly. Extremists wield them in an attempt to cause people to question their overall beliefs about Jews and society.
When antisemites and extremists reference 9/11, they often do so alongside other antisemitic slogans or conspiracy theories, including false claims about the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel, the Holocaust, the U.S.S. Liberty incident, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the ADL Center for Technology and Society has also noted, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) has also been increasingly weaponized to create antisemitic and extremist content, including about 9/11.
One ADL study found that three of the four common GAI tools tested complied with a prompt that deliberately invoked antisemitic conspiracy theories about 9/11 and about Jews being manipulative puppet-masters.
AI images generated as part of an ADL Center for Technology and Society study published in October 2025. From left to right: Results from Veo 3, Sora 1 and Hedra for “Shut it down” prompt.
The Legacy of Antisemitic 9/11 Conspiracy Theories
The lasting impact of antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories can be seen in how references to these antisemitic claims spike after major world events and the concerning ways in which antisemitic conspiratorial thinking transcends ideological and political lines and animates new generations.
The speaker lineup and agenda for a planned 9/11 conspiracy theorist conference scheduled for New York City this September, further demonstrates the ways in which 9/11 has become one piece of a broader conspiratorial and antisemitic ecosystem. The “Turning the Tide” conference is organized by some of the prominent players in the old school 9/11 “truther” movement, including Richard Gage, and is also expected to feature discussions about or sessions led by speakers known to promote many other types of conspiracy theories.
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Scheduled speakers for the “Turning the Tide” conference set to take place in New York City in September 2026, featuring speakers known to espouse a wide range of conspiratorial and antisemitic views that stretch beyond 9/11.
Notable scheduled speakers include Roger Waters, a prominent musician and extreme anti-Israel activist whose public commentary has repeatedly invoked antisemitic tropes about alleged Jewish or “Zionist” power; Phil Tourney, a leading proponent of the U.S.S. Liberty conspiracy theory who has also spoken at a Holocaust denial event; James Corbett, a political commentator who has claimed Hitler was a Rothschild and that Nazism was created by international banking interests; and James Li, a social media influencer who frequently blames Israel and Jews for false flag attacks and for interference in U.S. and global affairs.
The U.S. and Israeli military operation against the Iranian regime that began in February 2026 likewise immediately triggered a significant surge in a wide range of antisemitic, conspiratorial commentary, with references to 9/11 representing one of the most popular narratives. Influencers, political commentators, and many others known to promote antisemitic content — including Tucker Carlson, Daniel Haqiqatjou, Sneako, and more — directly referenced allegations about Jewish or Israeli involvement in 9/11 when reacting to news about the escalation with Iran.
ADL analysis found that hashtags and phrases explicitly claiming that “Jews did 9/11” or “Israel did 9/11,” as well as coded language like “Dancing Israelis” (a popular antisemitic 9/11 trope that claims that Israelis were involved in the 9/11 attacks and then celebrated as they watched the Twin Towers fall), spiked on social media after the escalation began. The widespread use of these phrases demonstrate how antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories have become shorthand to fuel conspiratorial claims of Jewish involvement in any number of global events and seeking to harm non-Jews.
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An antisemitic sign displayed by an anti-Israel activist in New York City in 2026 shows planes — including one depicted with a kippah and payot (the traditional head covering and sidelocks worn by observant Jewish men) and labeled “Zionist Airlines” — crashing into One World Trade Center with the caption “The next one will be blamed on Iran” overlaid on an Israeli flag.
After the fatal shooting in May 2025 of two people leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., conspiracy theorists across the political spectrum promoted claims that the shooting was a purposeful “false flag” attack carried out by the Israeli or U.S. government to make Jews and Israel look sympathetic, tighten relations between the two countries, or rationalize going to war with Iran. Various reactions explicitly referenced 9/11 as supposed “evidence” of prior similar acts orchestrated by Jews or Israel.
Social media platforms have also contributed to the continued circulation of 9/11 conspiracy theories, including their adoption among younger generations. In November 2023, a viral social media trend emerged on TikTok and spread to other platforms in which users promoted Osama bin Laden’s notoriously antisemitic and conspiratorial “Letter to America.” In the 2002 text, bin Laden justified Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks, claimed that Jews stole their ethnic and religious identity from the “original Semites,” and argued that “the creation of Israel is a crime which must be erased.” Addressing Americans, bin Laden further alleged that it is “the Jews, who control your policies, media and economy,” and also “the Jews” who “now control all aspects of your life making you their servants and achieving their aims at your expense.”
This trend demonstrated the malleable nature of 9/11 conspiracy theories. It re-gained traction in the early weeks of the Israel-Hamas war, amid increased criticism of the U.S.-Israel relationship that often crossed from political speech into antisemitism. Many of the social media users who promoted the 2002 letter explicitly tied it to contemporary global events and conspiratorial claims about Jews and Israel broadly.
The Enduring Legacy of Antisemitic 9/11 Tropes
The ADL Center on Extremism has closely tracked the evolution of antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories since 2001. Reports published by ADL in 2003, 2006, 2011, 2016, and 2021 illuminate the ways in which certain elements of these conspiracy theories have remained constant.
Age-old tropes about alleged Jewish power and control, disloyalty, and greed undergird many of the specific conspiratorial claims.
The most common claims allege that Jews or Israel either directly orchestrated or had advanced knowledge of the attacks, that the attacks were intentionally manipulated to serve Jewish or Israeli interests, benefited American Jews financially and politically, and were designed to draw the U.S. into war in the Middle East to aid Israel. Others allege that Jewish-controlled media and government entities hid the “truth” about the attacks or that Jews and “Zionists” used the 9/11 attacks to exploit and expand surveillance of American citizens.
Antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories transcend ideological lines, illustrating how the collective blaming of Jews and Israel can unite otherwise disparate ideological factions. They have thrived in spaces where historical events are seen as having been manufactured or manipulated to serve Jewish interests, while the so-called “truth” has been hidden from the masses. Evolving technologies have played a key role in the rapid dissemination of these ideas over time and the ways in which antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories have endured.