The hashtag #WouldYouHideMe began circulating on social media this week, prompting posts from Jewish and non-Jewish folks about what they’d do within the occasion of one other Holocaust.
Trend influencer Ellie Zeiler tried to boost consciousness across the controversial hashtag earlier this week—and ended up turning off her feedback on TikTok after dealing with a wave of backlash.
Viral TikTok faces backlash
Zeiler, who has greater than 10.7 million followers, tried to elucidate the hashtag #WouldYouHideMe, which began circulating on TikTok and X within the final week.
“It implies that Jewish folks all around the world are beneath assault,” Zeiler mentioned. “And we’re so scared that one other Holocaust goes to occur.”
On Oct. 7, Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a shock attack on Israel, which resulted in civilian deaths and hostages. Israel then declared struggle on Gaza and subsequently shut off water, electrical energy, and gasoline provide to the area, which was already labeled an “open-air prison.”
Zeiler says within the video that “the Nazis have been a terrorist group, much like Hamas,” which commenters pushed again in opposition to. The Nazis have been an authoritarian regime that held nice energy and affect.
Zeiler additionally filmed the video in what seems like the luxurious lavatory of a resort or house, sporting a full face of make-up.
Singer Kehlani, who’s been a vocal advocate for Palestinians throughout the battle, reposted a tweet that criticized the optics of this shot: “Contemporary beat, recent manicure, in a resort, a hoop gentle arrange when you movie your self peddling propaganda about the way you’re scared to your life with good angle, whereas Palestinians are filming surrounded by our bodies.”
kehlani/Instagram
The feedback on Zeiler’s TikTok, which has greater than 750,000 views, have been turned off, probably as a result of quantity of backlash she acquired. TikTokers nonetheless responded with stitched movies.
“In the meantime, the folks of Gaza can’t even get web entry, no recent water,” mentioned @hershiiliqcour in a stitched video.
“Sure, antisemitism is on the rise and that’s scary,” mentioned @chillingadventuresofsab in one other sew. “Nevertheless it’s on the rise as a result of Israel perpetuates the parable that it stands for and protects all Jews, after which it’s committing mass homicide in our names. … Now we have to face arm-in-arm with our Palestinian comrades, our Muslim comrades. As a result of our liberation is tied.”
@elliezeiler #wouldyouhideme ♬ original sound – Ellie Zeiler
Commenters known as out the cognitive dissonance of expressing nervousness about one other Holocaust occurring to Jews when Palestinians are presently beneath assault. The Each day Dot reached out to Zeiler for remark.
@hershiiliqcour #stitch with @Ellie Zeiler Ellie you might be a joke. How dare you laybin a heat mattress with web entry, meals clear towels, water and a mattress and declare to be inder assault whereas the ppl of gaza cant even take a NAP with wonderijg if a b**b goes to degree a avenue the are sleeping on. Whatbdanger are you in? Shortly. #freepalestine🇵🇸❤️ ♬ original sound – Hershii LiqCour-Jete
The origins of #WouldYouHideMe
The #WouldYouHideMe hashtag has greater than 800,000 views on TikTok, and it’s been posted by a number of high-profile X users who answered whether or not they would hypothetically settle for Jews into their properties within the occasion of one other Holocaust.
The primary utilization of the hashtag on X seems to be Oct. 31.
Meghan McCain, who is not Jewish, shared the tag. “What begins with the Jews by no means ends with the Jews,” she wrote. “Hamas and Isis are threats to all of us.”
There’s already dubiously sourced data about the place the tag is coming from, with one post claiming an “unknown org” is “paying influencers lots of of {dollars} every to put up it.” Compounding this are fake accounts amplifying misinformation about occasions in Gaza.
Whereas she hasn’t shared the hashtag, this week comic Amy Schumer was known as out for weeks of anti-Palestine posts and for harassing actress Asia Jackson, accusing her of antisemitism.
Schumer was criticized for centering herself, and never the folks struggling in Gaza, within the put up. The #WouldYouHideMe tag acquired related criticism.
‘Would You Cover Me?’: The documentary
The hashtag echoes the previous title of a brand new documentary from director Beth Lane, now known as UnBroken.
As described on the movie’s web site, the documentary “chronicles the seven Weber siblings who evaded sure seize and demise, and in the end escaped Nazi Germany following their mom’s incarceration and homicide at Auschwitz.”
The documentary, beforehand known as Would You Hide Me?, is a private story about Lane’s mom’s siblings having to cover on a farm for 2 years to outlive. It’s now debuting at movie festivals, together with Doc NYC this month, as Lane tries to promote the film.
Lane instructed the Each day Dot that this present marketing campaign and the white wall/black textual content photos circulating with it should not tied to her movie, which was titled Would You Cover Me? up till August. Lane mentioned she was requested to vary the title to make it extra accessible—however now regrets that.
Nonetheless, she mentioned she is “thrilled” about how #WouldYouHideMe is getting used now.
“It’s precisely the explanation I made the film,” Lane mentioned. “The entire purpose I made the film is as a result of I began asking that of myself: ‘Would I be capable of cover you?’”
Lane mentioned her manufacturing staff had been utilizing that hashtag for greater than three years, however the occasions of Oct. 7 may need revived it.
A Would You Hide Me X account was created in October 2023, although it has no tweets and solely 11 followers. Two of the accounts that comply with it have been additionally created in October 2023. Lane mentioned this wasn’t her staff.
Folks participating with the #WouldYouHideMe tag on X are additionally making racist and antisemitic feedback.
“I completely stand with Israel, one thousand p.c,” Lane mentioned. “I do consider that anti-Zionism is precisely the identical factor as antisemitism.”
She added that she “doesn’t want any bloodshed on any Palestinian household of any sort, however you can also’t let Hamas do what it’s executed, as a result of it gained’t cease at Israel. They are going to keep on all through the world.”
Many customers throughout social media have identified, nonetheless, that there’s a distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. Anti-Zionism is utilized to critics of the fashionable state of Israel. Antisemitism is hatred of Jews.
There’s been a push to equate the 2, however as Dave Zirin writes for The Nation, “to say that anti-Semitism is anti-Zionism can be a approach of speaking the concept Jews are by definition Zionists. That is harmful and anti-Semitic, branding Jewish folks as supporters of Israel’s struggle on Gaza regardless of our private politics.”
Concerning Zeiler’s and McCain’s posts, and the criticism they acquired, Lane mentioned she sees “backlash as a possibility.
“And though it’s actually tough to have conversations with people who don’t wish to hear the opposite aspect, I feel it’s actually essential to listen to the opposite aspect,” she mentioned.
Lane mentioned the truth that McCain is a Republican, and Zeiler seems like a “actuality tv star,” solely helps them “bust out past the echo chamber” if it helps them get any cross-promotion with the movie.
“The white Jewish aged folks love my film,” Lane mentioned. “However they’re not the folks I made the film for. … I simply instructed my movie competition strategist, I’m thrilled we received to [the] Miami [Jewish Film Festival], however can we please go to Oklahoma? Can we please go to Idaho?”
Nonetheless, Lane disagreed with the criticism that neither McCain nor Zeiler is in any actual hazard for his or her views.
Just a few of the #WouldYouHideMe posts reference a report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), claiming that antisemitic incidents have elevated almost 400% in America since Oct. 7.
The ADL tells the Each day Dot it doesn’t know the place the hashtag got here from.
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