With a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas bringing hostilities in Gaza to a halt, a trend has emerged online of Palestinians claiming to be "Holocaust Survivors."
Many of the participants in the trend have used the phrase "I am a Holocaust survivor" in their online posts or used a social media frame to assert their status.
Participants in the trend expressed belief that the Israeli military conducted a genocide in Gaza. They had survived this alleged ordeal, which some had begun to characterize as a "Holocaust."
In one example, an anti-Hamas and "anti-Israel government" X/Twitter account with the handle Madmoud-Gaza, explained in a Monday post that he was a genocide survivor. The account's biography listed the owner as "a Holocaust survivor."
Often claimants to the status have used the specific memetic phrase "I'm a Holocaust survivor," such as Lena Frhat on Instagram. Many, such as Mohammed Abu Owda, used the slogan alongside a portrait photograph of themselves.
One example which drew the ire of Jewish social media users, was that of Omar Hamad, who was criticized for making the claim of being a Holocaust survivor while alongside a picture of him in his wedding clothes. Hamad had gotten married on October 7.
An Instagram shareable sticker overlay, which places the phrase "A survivor of the Gaza Holocaust" in Arabic and English over Instagram stories, was created by graphic designer Mohamed Hosam Awadallah. The sticker also places a medal emoji and the count of hours since the beginning of the war.
"Officially a survivor of the Gaza Holocaust," Lama al-Shanti wrote in a Friday Instagram post with Awadallah's frame.
Screenshots by users of the sticker indicate that it had been added onto the Instagram stories of almost 30,000 people.
According to Awadallah, those that used the sticker included Gazan influencer Saleh Al-Jafarawi, who was reportedly killed on Sunday during clashes between Hamas and opposing Gazan clans.
Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed encouraged other Gazans to adopt the status of "Holocaust survivor." Abed told one X/Twitter user, who later that day posted a photo of herself with the Gaza Holocaust overlay, "You're a Holocaust survivor. May your future be filled with happiness and joy in what serves Islam and then your homeland."
"He's a holocaust survivor, and so is everyone in Gaza," Abed insisted in a comment defending Hamad.
Middle East Observer, an X/Twitter account with over 300,000 followers, bragged on Saturday that Israelis couldn't "use the Holocaust anymore" because "the torch has been passed to Gaza."
"That's one of the pillars of power and manipulation that Israel lost in this war," wrote the account. "Palestinians from Gaza are posting "I am a Holocaust survivor' and the Zionists are almost losing consciousness by scrolling on X."
Condemnation of the trend
International March of the Living condemned the trend as a "profound distortion of history and a cynical exploitation of humanity’s darkest chapters."
"Hijacking and weaponizing the term 'Holocaust survivor' for political or propaganda purposes desecrates the memory of six million murdered Jews and deeply insults the living survivors who endured the unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust," said International March of the Living CEO Scott Saunders. "It undermines the lessons the world must continue to learn from the Shoah."
Saunders argued that in contrast to the Nazi genocide against the Jewish people, Israel's war against Hamas was defensive, and waged in response to the October 7 Massacre.
"The Holocaust was a uniquely systematic and intentional attempt to annihilate the Jewish people, driven by an ideology of racial hatred, executed on an industrial scale, and lasting for years across an entire continent," said Saunders. "Six million Jews were murdered during the Shoah, in a genocide unparalleled in its scope, duration, cruelty, and deliberate intent to eradicate an entire people. Nothing about that unparalleled atrocity can or should be equated with any other conflict."