Ford vehicles are displayed at the New York International Auto Show Press Preview, in Manhattan, New York City, US, March 27, 2024. Photo: Reuters/David Dee Delgado/

The Ford Motor Company said on Monday that its official account on X was “briefly compromised” by hackers who posted a series of anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian messages, including one that called Israel a “terrorist state.”

“Our X account was briefly compromised and three posts were made that were not authorized or posted by Ford,” the company said in a statement shared on its X account. The American automobile manufacturer added that the posts “do not represent the views of [the] Ford Motor Company” and that together with X, the company is investigating the breach of its social media account.

The posts, which have since been deleted, included messages that said, “Israel is a terrorist state,” “Free Palestine” and “ALL EYES ON GAZA.” Hundreds of users on X reposted the messages and thousands “liked” them before they were removed. Many users on X noticed that Ford’s account had been hacked and took screenshots of the posts before they were deleted, including US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), who said Ford’s account “must have been hacked by the Free Palestine movement.”

Ford Motor Company must have been hacked by the Free Palestine movement. pic.twitter.com/4VOk1nPy0n

— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) December 30, 2024

Several users on X replied to Ford Motor’s statement by expressing frustration at the company’s lack of apology. Rabbi Samuel Stern, who co-chairs the Kansas State Holocaust Commemoration, asked, “I wonder if the unauthorized posts targeted anyone else if you would have apologized?”

“Companies founded by a notorious Antisemite and headquartered in Dearborn Michigan should really come up with a better apology to the Jewish community than this one,” said Joel Petlin, superintendent of the Kiryas Joel School District in Orange County, New York.

In 2023, Dearborn, Michigan, was the largest city in the US with an Arab-American majority, according to the University of Michigan.

The company’s founder, the late Henry Ford, publicly expressed antisemitic views and promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories. A close friend once recalled Ford attributing “all evil to Jews or to the Jewish capitalists,” and said he told others: “The Jews caused the war, the Jews caused the outbreak of thieving and robbery all over the country, the Jews caused the inefficiency of the navy.”