Features | Society | Southeast Asia

What Lies Behind the Rise in Anti-Israel Sentiment in Thailand?

Nationalist rabble-rousers have accused Israelis of trying to seize Thai territory, and Israeli tourists of misbehaving or disrespecting the country’s culture.

In this screenshot from a video posted on nationalist firebrand Sondhi Limthongkul’s YouTube channel, Thai nationalists participate in an anti-Israel protest outside the Israeli embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. Sep. 10, 2026.

For three years, small-scale pro-Palestine protests, centered around Israel’s human rights abuses in Gaza, have become common in Thailand. A few dozen left-wing activists would turn out to chant slogans more commonly associated with the massive street demonstrations in the West, to little interest from the general public or international media.

But on September 10, something changed.

A few hundred protesters showed up at the Israeli embassy in Bangkok, with another 500 at the Chabad House in Phuket. These protests featured some explicitly anti-Semitic signs, like “Jews out,” and the protest in Phuket forced the cancellation of a small, private gathering for the Jewish New Year, due to security concerns.

“We are monitoring the situation surrounding the Jewish New Year event in the Patong area. These Jews are staying inside their mansions,” one protest organizer was quoted as saying by local media outlet Bangkok Post. The Chabad House did not respond to The Diplomat’s request for comment.

Left-wing activist groups said that these protests don’t represent them. Rather, the pro-Palestine cause has been hijacked by xenophobic far-right groups that also regularly target vulnerable migrant workers from neighboring countries.

The previous left-wing protesters had largely focused on Israel’s well-documented atrocity crimes against Palestinian civilians.

A Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023 left over 1,000 people dead in Israel, including 39 Thai migrant workers. Israel responded with a massive air and ground assault on the besieged Gaza strip, killing over 70,000 people, including over 20,000 under the age of 18. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for crimes against humanity for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

“At that time, the Israeli military began carrying out increasingly severe measures that went far beyond what could reasonably be described as mere ‘retaliation,’ as the Israeli government claimed. We saw these actions as part of a deliberate process of colonization,” said Nai, a protester who first became active in the pro-Palestine movement in late 2023, as a 19-year-old university student.

The Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) Movement in Thailand calls for the Thai government to stop sending Thai migrant workers to Israel, screen Israeli tourists and arrest those suspected of war crimes, end all arms trade and military agreements with Israel, and ultimately sanction Israel and sever diplomatic relations.

“BDS Thailand abides by the same values as the international BDS movement: freedom, justice, and equality. Thus, we oppose the bigoted, anti-Semitic, racist/xenophobic, and nationalist rhetoric that such right-wing opportunists espouse. BDS Thailand is NOT affiliated with and does NOT approve of right-wing demonstrations or their signage,” added the BDS Movement’s Thailand chapter.

The right-wing protesters have focused more on domestic issues, accusing Israel of trying to seize Thai territory, and Israeli tourists of misbehaving or disrespecting Thai people, allegations that have little empirical evidence to support them.

The land seizure allegation is rooted in an extremely common business practice in Thailand. Foreigners are prohibited from owning land, but many skirt this law by buying property through a company started with a Thai frontman – known locally as a “nominee.” This is done both to purchase private residences and launch small businesses, or at times for more large-scale real estate developments.

The government is cracking down on this practice, and some Israeli companies have been targeted. But Israelis are far from unique in this, and are unlikely to rank among the highest offenders.

The Ministry of Commerce released data on land owned by businesses with foreign investors, finding Chinese nationals held by far the most land, at around 35,000 acres, more than double the next nationality – Japanese. The United Kingdom, Singapore, and Hong Kong rounded out the top five, while the ministry said 147 nationalities own shares in companies that own land in Thailand.

(Not all of these companies would be illegal. The legitimacy of a business can be very hard to determine, because the main factor is whether the Thai business partner is a legitimate partner or just a frontman. The government says it is in the midst of a close review of suspicious businesses).

Accusations of Israelis misbehaving or disrespecting locals are harder to quantify. To be sure, there have been some viral incidents on social media, such as a young Israeli woman arrogantly claiming that “my money builds your country.” In another shocking episode, four Israeli men caused property damage and allegedly threatened staff at a hospital where a friend was receiving treatment following a motorbike accident.

Still, the vast majority of the 400,000 Israeli tourists who visited Thailand last year came and went without incident. Out of context social media clips hardly prove a statistical trend, but they have contributed to rising xenophobic sentiment the world over. Thai........

© The Diplomat