ExtremismIn 9/11 Video, Al Qaeda Doubles Down on Enmity toward Jews and Israel

Each year, to commemorate the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, the notorious terrorist group Al Qaeda releases a video featuring one of the group’s senior leaders who typically reiterates the significance and impact of those deadly events from their warped perspective. Al Qaeda’s 2021 video, which was recently analyzed by experts in ADL’s Center on Extremism and the ADL department of International Affairs, was notable for several reasons. First, it contains minimal footage of 9/11 itself, a departure from the typical emphasis on the violence of that day. Second, the video prominently features leader Ayman al Zawahiri, who many Western analysts speculated had died, focusing explicitly on Israel.

Zawahiri introduced the film as part of Al Qaeda’s “Jerusalem will not be Judaized” campaign, which was launched after the December 2017 announcement by the Trump Administration that it was planning to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The video provides crucial context for the group’s extremist agenda, underscoring that Al Qaeda is particularly focused on a strike against Israel, and that anti-Semitism remains an animating element of Al Qaeda’s worldview.

Al Qaeda’s Intention to Target Israel
Typically, the 9/11 anniversary is a major propaganda opportunity for Al Qaeda’s central leadership, so the decision to replace its typical messaging with content focusing unambiguously on Israel was itself remarkable.

In the video, Zawahiri spends a significant amount of time laying out a timeline of the creation of Israel, starting with the period of Western military control of the Middle East after World War I. He frames the narrative to suggest that Arab leaders were initially manipulated and lied to by the European powers to force them to acquiesce to the establishment of the state of Israel. Zawahiri reserves particular vitriol for Arab leaders for failing to be tougher against Israel, particularly those who pursued peace accords with the country.

The viciousness of Zawahiri’s criticism for Arab leaders who have established diplomatic relations with Israel is part of a longstanding theme in Al Qaeda propaganda, likely exacerbated in this instance by the success of the 2020 Abraham Accords, which demonstrates that opposition to Israel is no longer a political necessity for some leaders in the region. This also weakens the standing of hardliners like Al Qaeda, since it undermines the claim that violence is the only solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.