False claims that Israel orchestrated the migrant crisis in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta were viewed more than 100 million times on X in just 72 hours, according to a new report, with prominent figures including Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem and commentator and provocateur Candace Owens among those amplifying the conspiracy.

Researchers from the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) analyzed 173 high-impact posts from 119 influencer accounts, which generated 57.5 million views and 368,400 shares. Reposts outnumbered comments by more than seven to one, suggesting users overwhelmingly shared the allegations rather than questioning them. 

“Israel, and the Western far right eager to turn migration into a weapon against Muslims,” read a post shared by Bardem, who is Spanish, on Instagram. It was one of several posts shared by the actor pointing a finger at Israel over the crisis, which saw some 60,000 migrants enter Ceuta from Morocco over two days – equivalent to roughly 70% of the enclave’s population – with at least 72 people dying in the breach. 

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee hit back at Bardem, accusing him of promoting a “laughable new blood libel” and likening him to both lead characters in the 1994 comedy “Dumb and Dumber.”

Former Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth also amplified the claim, asking why Israel would not “want its ally Morocco to control Ceuta as opposed to its critic Spain.”

Morocco normalized relations with Israel in 2020 under the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords, and the two countries have since developed close diplomatic, economic and security ties. By contrast, relations between Israel and Spain have deteriorated sharply as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government recognized a Palestinian state, repeatedly condemned the IDF’s conduct in Gaza – with Sánchez last year describing Israel as a “genocidal state” – and curtailed defense ties with Jerusalem. 

Candace Owens was among numerous prominent accounts to revive a 2019 post by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son, Yair, who wrote, “Dear Arabs and Muslims. Want to free occupied Arab Islamic lands? Here’s a good start!” alongside a map highlighting Ceuta, Melilla and other Spanish-held territories in North Africa.

Yair Netanyahu responded by saying that the years-old post was intended to expose Spain’s “hypocrisy and audacity” in criticizing Israel’s presence in the West Bank while holding onto territories “on the African continent that were historically under Muslim rule.”

“I see that antisemitic conspiracy theorists are using this tweet from 2019 as ‘proof’ for their absurd blood libels against Jews and Israel,” Netanyahu wrote on Friday.

Spanish Transportation Minister Óscar Puente seized on remarks by Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, as apparent confirmation of the allegations. After Danon said Spain should explain why it still holds “colonial enclaves in Africa” before lecturing Israel, Puente reposted Danon’s remarks on X with the message: “Well, things are starting to get pretty clear.” 

CAM highlighted several of the most widely shared fabrications, including one that falsely attributed the conspiracy to Bardem himself. A pro-Palestinian account claimed the actor had said Israel engineered the migration to punish Spain over Gaza, but despite sharing conspiratorial posts, he made no such statement himself. Former adult-film performer and commentator Mia Khalifa nevertheless quote-tweeted the post, helping push the unsupported claim to another 906,700 views. 

Other examples were more overtly conspiratorial. A post from an account called “Forbidden HQ,” viewed 5.3 million times, used an image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with migrants streaming from his mouth onto a Spanish beach. Antisemitic mega-influencer Dan Bilzerian falsely claimed Netanyahu had warned Spain it would pay “the ultimate price” for criticizing Israel, drawing 2.7 million views. 

An account styling itself “China Times,” despite having no connection to a Chinese news organization, went further, asserting that Israel had effectively confessed to using Mossad to trigger the influx. The supposed proof came from a clearly labeled parody account, yet the post was retweeted 11,000 times and received just 786 comments. On the far left, Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa told followers the crossing had been “completely engineered by the US, Israel, and Morocco” to force Spain back into line with “western imperial objectives.” 

CAM CEO Sacha Roytman Dratwa took aim at X for allowing the allegations to race across the platform unchecked, saying the social media giant’s design rewards “the fastest and most inflammatory explanation available” and increasingly turns breaking events into “a Jewish conspiracy.”