The Israel-Hamas war has brought back the quiet voice of Osama Bin Laden. Twenty-one years after it was first published, Tik-Tokers have found the ‘Letter to the American People’ and, shockingly, appear to agree with the long-dead terrorist.
With more than a thousand TikTok users making and sharing their videos in a single day, the Osama letter videos have now gone viral across all social media platforms.
People called it the “TikTok PsyOp tsunami” and said how stunned they were that Gen Z was “praising a manifesto” that justified the killing of civilians.
The letter by the chief of al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, was written after the attacks of 2001, the most horrific terror attack ever Americans witnessed. It attempts to justify the 9/11 attacks and links them, among other things, to “…support to the oppressive Israelis in their occupation of our Palestine”.
That appears to be the cause of why Osama’s letter resurfaced and became viral.
The TikTok videos of Osama bin Laden’s letter occurred and went viral against this backdrop.
The hashtag #lettertoamerica has been viewed about 4.5 million times on the TikTok and other social media platforms.
The letter begins, “Your former president warned you previously about the devastating Jewish control of capital [wealth] and about a day that would come when it would enslave you.”
Bin Laden wrote: “You continue to support the oppressive Israelis in their occupation of our Palestine in response to pressures on your administration by a Jewish lobby backed by enormous financial capabilities. Palestine has been under occupation for decades, and none of your presidents talked about it until after September 11 when Bush realized that your oppression and the tyranny against us were part of the reason for the attack,” he wrote on the subject of Palestinian statehood.
“You have to implement a roadmap that returns the Palestine land [sic] to us, all of it, from the sea to the river; it is an Islamic land not subject to being traded or granted to any party.”
“Palestine shall not be seen captive for we will try to break its shackles. The United States shall pay for its arrogance with the blood of Christians and their funds.”
The Guardian newspaper had the viral letter on its website since 2002 but it was removed after the videos went viral.
The Guardian’s recent action was said to have fuelled more interest in Osama’s letter and the videos.
The Guardian message said, “This page previously displayed a document containing, in translation, the full text of Osama bin Laden’s “letter to the American people”, as reported in the Observer on Sunday 24 November 2002.”
The document, which was published on its website on the same day, was removed on 15 November 2023, the Guardian said. It didn’t give any reason for the removal of the document.
“The Guardian had a copy of ‘Letter to America’ posted, but once these TikToks went viral, the Guardian took it down, which has only led to more interest in the letter and conspiracies from TikTokers who say this is part of the media and the powers that control it trying to silence the truth,” American journalist Yashar Ali posted on X.
“Many of them — and I have watched a lot — say it has made them reevaluate their perspective on how what is often labeled as terrorism can be a legitimate form of resistance to a hostile power,” Yashar Ali wrote.
Revealing the Israel-Hamas war link to the letter going viral, a TikTok user said: “If you are Muslim and are living in the USA since 9/11 you know more than the typical citizen. Now it’s coming to light because of Palestine.”
