The Israeli men were first reported by a New Jersey housewife, who saw the group of five standing on a van near the Doric Towers apartment buildings in Union City, New Jersey on a cliffside overlooking the Manhattan skyline and the Twin Towers. When she called to report the men, she said: “All of the males appeared to be jovial in that they smiled, hugged one another, and gave ‘high fives.’”
A year after the attacks, she told ABC News: “They seemed to be taking a movie. They were like happy, you know … they didn't look shocked to me. I thought it was strange." None however was dancing.
The ‘Dancing Israeli’ moniker came from an altogether different source, the father of 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta.In a USA Today article from a few weeks after the attacks, quoting Muslim officials from around the world who were alleging that Israel was behind the plot, Atta’s grieving father said that there was insufficient attention being paid to the fact that “The FBI seized a number of Jews while they were dancing in celebration over the incidents.”