Qatar is partially responsible for the increase in Diaspora antisemitism and X/Twitter is the most problematic social media platform, Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli said in a conversation with The Jerusalem Post about aliyah and hatred toward Jews.
Chikli spoke about the Diaspora Ministry’s launch of a new tool two months ago, which aims to combat antisemitism.
The AI-based system allows the ministry to monitor every social network and provide key details that prevent terror attacks against Jewish communities, as well as give indications of the level of antisemitism in various countries.
Chikli said the system also helps the ministry understand who the “engines of antisemitism” are, be they politicians or influencers or organizations.
The ministry’s tool enables them to understand who is spreading antisemitism, Chikli added, which is the first step to combating it.
According to Chikli, Canada and the US’s recent ban on the pro-Palestinian organization Samidoun – which is affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – was partly due to reports published by the Diaspora Ministry and shared with the respective governments.
The ministry’s research department is currently doing the same with other groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine.
The team at the Diaspora Ministry has also maintained constant correspondence with the leadership of social networks, especially TikTok. The platform, which Chikli said was particularly problematic at the start of the war, has taken many steps to try to prevent antisemitism.
“TikTok is better now than it was 10 months ago, but there is still a lot of work to do [regarding social networks], especially on X,” Chikli said.
Speaking on allegations by some that the Diaspora Ministry politicizes antisemitism, Chikli said this was “not true, it’s not accurate.” Critics of the ministry have argued that the ministry overly focuses on left-wing, and not right-wing, Jew-hatred. He noted that the ministry does a lot of work monitoring anti-Israel influencers, such as Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, who are both right-wing commentators.
Chikli also spoke on his suspicion regarding right-wing anti-Israel influencer Dan Bilzerian, who “all of a sudden became an Islam promoter.”
“All of a sudden, [Bilzerian] has changed the narrative. He is speaking about the Quran and Islam and the state of Israel.”
While Chikli noted that it was too early to tell, he suggested that there might be “a Qatari effort behind some of these influencers and the changes they have made in their opinions.”
“I have said from the beginning of the war, the cooperation with Qatar regarding the hostages is a grave mistake because Qatar should have been pressed first and foremost by the Americans and also by Israel to pay the price for their support of Hamas,” Chikli stressed.
“I don’t see Qatar as a friendly state. I don’t see Qatar as a fair mediator in the negotiations.”“Qatar is an enemy state,” Chikli told the Post.
Antisemitism, Aliyah and the Diaspora
The Israel-Hamas War and in the North has been at the epicenter of Jewish, if not global, affairs, Chikli continued, significantly impacting the lives of Diaspora Jews.
“Just like us, [Diaspora Jews] are at war,” Chikli told the Post.
While the nature of this war is different from the one in Israel, he said, the rise in antisemitism, the harassment, the attacks, and the graffiti can nevertheless be considered the battleground of Diaspora Jews.
In terms of the connection between this crescendo, and aliyah, Chikli said that while it is a personal choice, he did not feel people should make aliyah due to antisemitism.
“Making aliyah should be because this is the choice that you feel is the right thing to do because of your culture, your community, to raise your kids in Israel,” he said.
The most important tool for encouraging aliyah, Chikli continued, “is Jewish education.”
This, he stressed, is how to make Diaspora Jews feel connected to the Jewish people, Am Yisrael.
Chikli said it was too early to measure the impact of the war and of antisemitism on rates of aliyah.
While he acknowledged an uptick in interest in moving to Israel, “in terms of aliyah, we don’t see a dramatic change yet, but we might see it after the war,” he concluded.
