Amichai Chikli, the Israeli minister for Diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, on Thursday commemorated Daniel Lewin, who is widely believed to be the first victim of 9/11, on the attacks’ 24th anniversary.
Lewin, 31, who co-founded the Akamai Technologies company and had served in Israel’s special forces, was seated near the hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 11 when he attempted to fight back.
Lewin is believed to have been fatally stabbed by hijacker Satam al-Suqami before the plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, making him the first victim of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Lewin, “a pioneer of the internet age, embodied courage and the bond between Israel and the U.S.,” Chikli wrote in a post on X on Thursday.
“His legacy, more than the technology he built, is the freedom he fought for until his last breath,” according to Jerusalem’s Diaspora minister.
Chikli also criticized public figures who promote “vile conspiracy theories,” including conservative influencers Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, urging them to remember “the facts and the victims.”
The first victim on 9/11 was Daniel Lewin, Israeli-born, former IDF special forces officer, and co-founder of @Akamai.
— עמיחי שיקלי - Amichai Chikli (@AmichaiChikli) September 11, 2025
Sitting just rows behind the hijackers on Flight 11, he tried to fight back and was stabbed to death before the plane struck the North Tower.
Daniel, a pioneer… pic.twitter.com/RNdnO4O0Jb
“Amid the flood of toxic conspiracy theories spread by hateful and antisemitic influencers like Dan Bilzerian, Candace Owens, and Tucker Carlson, one vile claim stands out: the accusation of Israeli involvement in the 9/11 attacks—attacks that were planned, led, and executed by the jihadist terrorist organization Al-Qaeda,” Chikli told JNS on Thursday.
“All 19 hijackers were Muslim men from Arab countries—15 of them Saudi nationals,” Chikli noted, asking, “Who is behind the promotion of these lies, especially in the midst of a brutal war against Hamas?”
“In my assessment, these narratives are being pushed by Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated elements, operating from Turkey and Qatar—the emerging axis of evil,” the Diaspora minister told JNS.
On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners set to travel from the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions to California.
The hijackers crashed the first two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, two of the world’s five tallest buildings at the time.
A third plane was crashed into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Va., while a fourth aircraft crashed in rural Pennsylvania amid a passenger revolt.
The attacks killed 2,977 people.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday invoked the memory of the terror attacks on the United States as he defended Jerusalem’s strike in Doha targeting terrorists behind the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
He stressed that Israel’s operation followed the same model the United States used when it pursued Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and ultimately eliminated Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
