MISBAR Analyzes Digital Campaign Targeting Lamine Yamal After He Raised the Palestinian Flag

Lamine Yamal, the Barcelona player, raised the Palestinian flag during his team’s celebrations after winning the Spanish league title. The moment did not remain a passing scene in a football celebration. Instead, it became a notable act of solidarity with Palestinians, while a parallel campaign sought to criminalize the gesture and associate it with “terrorism.”

Yamal Raises the Palestinian Flag

Within hours, the image moved beyond its sporting context into a broader political and media sphere, becoming the subject of attacks by Israeli and Spanish-speaking right-wing accounts that sought to strip the gesture of its humanitarian dimension and link the raising of the Palestinian flag to support for terrorism and antisemitism. As the campaign against the player expanded, signs emerged of coordinated content amplification involving low-follower accounts, newly created profiles, and influential figures who helped drive and broaden anti-Yamal narratives.

In this report, Misbar traces the trajectory of the digital campaign against Lamine Yamal, from the initial surge of engagement around the image to its transformation into a widespread wave of attacks. The report analyzes the volume and timeline of posts, identifies the most prominent accounts promoting anti-Yamal narratives, and examines the languages, geographic locations, and keywords most prevalent in the campaign. It also raises a central question: Was the backlash a spontaneous reaction to a sporting moment, or part of a broader digital mobilization targeting Yamal because he raised the Palestinian flag?

Engagement Pattern

Analysis of interactions related to Lamine Yamal’s name showed a clear increase beginning on May 10, coinciding with the spread of footage showing him raising the Palestinian flag during Barcelona’s Spanish league title celebrations. Engagement continued to rise over the following two days before peaking on May 12, as attacks led by Israeli and Spanish-speaking right-wing accounts intensified.

Parallel to the overall engagement trend surrounding Yamal, analysis of hostile posts targeting the player revealed a similar timeline. The wave of attacks began escalating on the same day and reached its peak on May 13, indicating a rapid shift from discussing the image as a notable sporting moment to using it as a trigger for a digital campaign aimed at criminalizing the player because of his display of the Palestinian flag.

Account Engagement

In terms of overall activity, the analysis recorded nearly one million posts related to Lamine Yamal’s name, generated by approximately half a million accounts. By contrast, a review of hostile content identified more than 39,000 anti-Yamal posts shared by over 22,000 accounts as part of the campaign against him.

The analysis also revealed a strong presence of pro-Israel and Spanish-speaking right-wing accounts among those participating in the attacks. Account descriptions and symbols frequently featured the flags of Israel, the United States, and Spain, alongside slogans such as “Yisrael Chai” (“The People of Israel Live”), right-wing phrases including “Anti Comunista” and “anti zurdos,” and references linked to Spain’s far-right VOX party.

The flag of El Salvador also appeared in several accounts, suggesting participation by pro-Israel right-wing users operating outside the immediate Israeli and Spanish contexts.

In terms of language, 71% of the accounts involved in the attacks posted in Spanish, followed by English at 25%, while the remainder was distributed among other European languages in smaller proportions. This distribution suggests that the campaign was not confined to Israeli digital spaces but expanded into a broader Spanish-speaking right-wing sphere, particularly in Spain and parts of Latin America.

Geographically, the accounts participating in the attacks were distributed across Spain (36%), Mexico (14%), the United States (10%), France (5%), and Venezuela (5%), with smaller percentages elsewhere. This distribution reflects the campaign’s expansion beyond local reactions to Barcelona’s celebrations and its transformation into a cross-border digital wave that used the Palestinian issue as a subject of political and media polarization.

The Narrative Used Against Lamine Yamal

Analysis of the most frequently used keywords in posts attacking Lamine Yamal shows that the hostile narrative centered on criminalizing expressions of solidarity with Palestinians by linking the Palestinian flag to terrorism, Hamas, and antisemitism.

The word cloud highlighted key terms and phrases such as “Lamine,” “Palestina,” “bandera,” and “palestino,” alongside accusatory terms including “terrorismo,” “Hamas,” “supporting terrorists,” and “terror and murder.” This overlap between the player’s name, the Palestinian flag, and terrorism-related language reflects a clear effort to strip the image of its humanitarian significance and recast it as a political and security-related issue.

The narrative also featured references connecting Yamal to the broader political debate surrounding Palestine and Israel through names such as Netanyahu and terms including “derecha,” “Gobierno,” “violación,” and “derechos humanos.” This suggests that the discussion moved beyond football into a highly polarized political space concerning Palestine and the limits of expressing support for it within sports.

Accounts That Drove the Campaign

Analysis of the most active accounts involved in the attacks against Lamine Yamal revealed three main groups: official or influential Israeli figures, Spanish-speaking right-wing accounts, and anonymous or semi-anonymous accounts that contributed to amplifying anti-Yamal narratives.

Israeli Accounts

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz was among the most prominent figures attacking Yamal after he raised the Palestinian flag. Katz described the gesture as support for terrorism and called on Barcelona to issue a statement distancing itself from the player’s actions.

Youssef Haddad, an Israeli activist of Arab origin, also joined the attacks, using offensive language and publishing a video near the Gaza border in which he repeated similar talking points linking the Palestinian flag to violence and terrorism.

Another Israeli account, Marwan Jaber, accused Yamal of mixing politics with sports and claimed the player had chosen to stand on the “wrong side of history,” reinforcing the broader narrative seeking to criminalize the display of the Palestinian flag within a sporting celebration.

Spanish-Speaking Accounts

In Spanish-speaking digital spaces, Eduardo Menoni emerged as a prominent voice. Menoni, a Venezuelan right-wing political activist and analyst based in El Salvador, is known for defending Israel and far-right causes online. He attacked Yamal and called for his expulsion from the Spanish national team after describing the raising of the Palestinian flag as support for terrorism.

Bertrand Ndongo, a Cameroonian political activist based in Spain and a member of the far-right VOX party, also joined the attacks. He used offensive language against the player, described him as a supporter of terrorism, and called for him to be barred from entering the United States during the World Cup.

Anonymous Accounts

Alongside well-known figures, the analysis identified influential accounts with little publicly available personal information that nonetheless played a role in promoting and expanding anti-Yamal narratives.

Among them was the account “Vivid,” which X platform updates indicated was based in India. The account attacked Yamal by accusing him of supporting terrorism and linking the Palestinian flag to violence and brutality.

Another prominent account was Eli Afriat, a pro-Israel account with an unclear personal identity. Afriat reposted a video of Israeli influencer Noam Trabes cutting up a Yamal jersey. Other accounts circulated videos and images showing the burning of Yamal’s No. 10 shirt in an attempt to turn the digital campaign into a symbolic act against the player and his expression of solidarity with Palestinians.

Indicators of Amplified Engagement

Analysis of the interactions involved in the attacks against Lamine Yamal revealed a number of accounts displaying indicators commonly associated with content amplification, particularly limited follower counts and recent creation dates. These indicators suggest that part of the campaign relied not only on well-known or influential accounts but also on smaller and relatively new profiles that helped expand anti-Yamal narratives.

In terms of followers, the analysis identified approximately 4,400 accounts with no more than 100 followers each. This reflects the significant presence of low-impact accounts that may gain influence when acting collectively within a single engagement wave.

Regarding account creation dates, the analysis found that recently created accounts also contributed to driving engagement. Among them were approximately 569 accounts created during 2026 up to the time of monitoring. Based on creation-date distribution over the previous three years, the sample included 946 accounts created in 2024, 1,101 created in 2025, and 569 created in 2026, for a total of 2,616 accounts.

These indicators strengthen the hypothesis that anti-Yamal narratives were digitally amplified, particularly when considered alongside similarities in messaging, synchronized posting patterns, and repeated use of language linking the Palestinian flag to terrorism and antisemitism.

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