ATLAS

DivergenceEPSILON-1-17-5Sheet 5 of 5 of the dossier Reptilians

Cosmic fantasy or coded antisemitism?

David Icke says his reptilians are not a code for anyone; critics and the Anti-Defamation League say the theory recycles antisemitic conspiracy tropes.

Summary

The first sheet presents the reptilian thesis as its author tells it, as a story about alien beings. This one records the sharpest dispute over that account. David Icke has denied being an antisemite and has rejected the idea that "reptilian" is a code word for any group. Critics disagree. Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, told the New York Times in 2018 that there is no fair reading of Icke's work that could be seen as not anti-Semitic. Critics point in particular to Icke's endorsement of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an antisemitic hoax and forgery, an endorsement that led his publisher to decline further books; he has since been banned from entering a number of countries. Journalists and encyclopedias go further and describe the lizard-people trope as an old one with links to anti-immigrant and antisemitic hostility dating to the nineteenth century, and note that some QAnon adherents borrowed reptilian elements shared with antisemitic conspiracy theories.

The disagreement is therefore not about whether reptilians exist, which nothing supports, but about what the narrative does: for its author it is cosmology, for its critics it is a disguised old accusation. This dossier names no person or group as reptilian.

What the thesis says

The sources show where these claims circulate, not that they are true.

  1. Thesis

    Icke has denied that he is an antisemite and has said that the reptilian idea is not a code for any group.

    • David Icke, Wikipedia
      Icke has denied that he is an antisemite.
    • David Icke, Wikipédia
      Les critiques considèrent que « reptiliens » d'Icke est un nom de code désignant les Juifs, ce qu'Icke nie farouchement

Verified facts

  1. Verified fact

    The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is an antisemitic hoax and forgery; Icke's endorsement of it in books of 1994 and 1995 led his publisher to decline further books.

  2. Verified fact

    The antisemitic themes in Icke's statements and his promotion of misinformation have resulted in his being banned from entering a number of countries.

    • David Icke, Wikipedia
      has resulted in his being banned from entering a number of countries

Official version

  1. Official version

    Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, told the New York Times in December 2018: "There is no fair reading of Icke's work that could be seen as not anti-Semitic".

    • David Icke, Wikipedia
      There is no fair reading of Icke's work that could be seen as not anti-Semitic
  2. Official version

    NBC News commentary describes the lizard-people trope as a very old one with disturbing links to anti-immigrant and antisemitic hostilities dating to the 19th century.

  3. Official version

    Some QAnon adherents have borrowed from the reptilian theory, including elements shared with antisemitic conspiracy theories.

    • Reptilian conspiracy theory, Wikipedia
      Some adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory have also borrowed from the reptilian conspiracy theory, including elements shared in antisemitic conspiracy theories.