Meanings
- UShistoryA group of five Israelis (Sivan Kurzberg, Paul Kurzberg, Yaron Shmuel, Oded Ellner and Omer Marmari), believed to have Mossad connections, who were witnessed and later arrested for celebrating the September 11 attacks.
I wonder if Americans will forget the dancing Israelis?
2002 June 14, JohnQSmith, “OT--There you go.”, in talk.politics.mideast (Usenet)1 more example
Israel has also been discussed in terms of the possibility that elements of its government were involved. Unfortunately, such claims are often made without supporting evidence and coherent reasoning. Although there is evidence that Israeli intelligence knew details about the attacks in advance—the story of the "Dancing Israelis" verified this foreknowledge—many governments had advanced knowledge of the attacks as indicated by the warnings issued.
2013, Kevin Robert Ryan, Another Nineteen: Investigating Legitimate 9/11 Suspects, U.S.: Microbloom, →ISBN, page 312
Origin
Coined sometime after the September 11 attacks in 2001 and popularized as part of some advanced-knowledge conspiracy theories. The "dancing" descriptor, although inaccurate, originates from the father of 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Dancing Israelis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Dancing%20Israelis
“Dancing Israelis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Dancing%20Israelis. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Dancing Israelis,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Dancing%20Israelis.
Source: Dancing Israelis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.