There’s a new conspiracy theory involving Haliey Welch, the “hawk tuah” girl who rose to prominence after her street interview in which she encouraged viewers to “spit on that thang.”
Welch has since capitalized on her newfound fame, launching a podcast on Jake Paul’s network and making appearances at concerts and a music festival.
But a new, fringe conspiracy is taking hold in some corners of the internet: that Welch is an Israeli psyop.
The conspiracy began with a viral post made Wednesday night asserting “she lowkey a former Israeli soldier cosplaying a southern belle after her billionaire dad hired a pr firm to scrub her past off the internet particularly her old TikTok where she ain’t even speak English let alone had a fake ass southern accent.”
Based on reposts from the original poster joking that there are “0 community notes so it must be true,” it’s likely the post was made in jest.
But satirical in its intentions or not, some people appear to be actually buying into the unfounded idea.
“Wait, what???” quote replied one prominent anti-Israel X account.
“It’s all a psy-op,” replied someone else. “Stop falling for these thirst traps you SIMPY BASTARDS!“
Many of the replies were riddled with antisemitic language and tropes.
Some people referenced an older photo of Welch to support their theory.
“Her & her friend looked pretty jewish before their nose jobs,” one account wrote.
Another account amplified the image shared, claiming without any evidence whatsoever: “So the ‘Hawk Tuah’ girl is actually the daughter of an Israeli billionaire. Go figure. This is her before the nose job and fake accent.”
Someone else who shared the same image of Welch and her friends similarly claimed that Welch’s father “had an Israeli government scrub her past social media [including 4chan and Reddit].” The account went on to claim that she “used to dress up in Israeli soldiers gear and had a nose job and a PR team !!!”
The conspiracy seems to have gained some traction following her appearance on Howie Mandel’s podcast, in which a DNA test purported to reveal that Welch is 97.7% Ashkenazi Jewish.
While some are doubtful of the veracity of the podcast revelation, the appearance nonetheless prompted a spew of antisemitism toward Welch.
“No wonder she got scooped up by the vile Jewish media and thrown into fame. Every single time,” wrote one person on X.
One account included a clip from the podcast showing her learning she has Jewish ancestry and said, “The damn ‘Hawk Tuah’ girl is a damn Zionist. That’s how her fame came ‘out of nowhere’.” (The podcast clip makes no mention of Israel.)
The outlandish conspiracy prompted widespread mockery online, with some social media users joking that they never pictured themselves standing up for Welch.
“i never thought i’d be on here defending the hawk tuah girl but this is a crazy thing to say without a shred of evidence to back it up,” wrote one person. “you have to be gullible asf if you believe this. just because she’s ethnically jewish doesn’t mean she’s ex IDF .”
“The Israeli government infiltrated social media to promote Hawk Tuah girl in order to (?)” joked someone else.
“is this not just unbelievably delusional,” stated another account.
But it’s not the first conspiracy surrounding her. When she first became famous, a right-wing poster alleged she was part of a CIA operation to spread degeneracy.
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