Anti-Jewish COVID theories top list of worst antisemitism outbreaks
"Antisemites have blamed Jews for the medieval Black Plague to the WWI Spanish Flu" – and now they blame Jews for COVID-19, too.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALIn this image shared on Telegram on March 15, the coronavirus is presented as a trojan horse for “globalist” Jews.(photo credit: ADL/COURTESY)
The human rights organization Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) on Tuesday announced its top ten outbreaks of antisemitism and anti-Israelism for 2020, with various conspiracy theories blaming Jews for the COVID-19 pandemic earning the lead spot.“From the earliest stages of the pandemic in February 2020, far-right extremists across social media platforms blamed Jews and Asian Americans for the virus,” wrote the center, citing the example of a “posting with an image titled ‘Holocough’ [that] urged, ‘If you have the bug, give a hug. Spread the flu to every Jew.’”The center said that: “Antisemites have blamed Jews for the medieval Black Plague to the WWI Spanish Flu. In the 1930s, Nazi propaganda compared Jews to vermin who spread disease.”The number two spot went to the social media platform Telegram.“Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and many others turn to Telegram, a platform with little or no rules or content moderation. The murderous Atomwaffen Division; its successor, the National Socialist Order; extremist The Base; the Boogaloo Movement; [and] the violent Nordic Resistance Movement that targeted Jewish institutions on Yom Kippur in four Scandinavian countries; have all found a home on Telegram,” the center wrote, adding that “Hamas and other Islamist terrorists with hate and violence agendas also have active feeds targeting their enemies.”Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan secured the third spot. His entry was labeled: “Godfather of hate spreads Jews-hatred to new generations.” He alleged that Jews tried to kill him with “radiated seeds.”Fourth place went to the far Left and far Right in the US for their “Desecrations, arson, [and] violent attacks against synagogues as America reels from turmoil after George Floyd’s death.” Wiesenthal wrote that “Synagogues in Los Angeles, and Oakland, California and Kenosha, Wisconsin were targeted in the aftermath of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests [and] George Floyd’s and Jake Blake’s killings.”Iran's clerical regime earned the fifth spot over supreme leader of Iran Ayatollah Khamenei's invoking of the Nazis’ Final Solution.The entry said that “In defending the [former] supreme leader, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif used an antisemitic slur as recorded by MEMRI: ‘… what is our solution? The Honorable Leader [Khamenei] has expressed the solution. We’re not talking about throwing the Kikes [Johood in Persian] into the sea, or about a military attack, or about suicide operations. The Leader has said what the solution is, and it has been presented to the United Nations. Our solution is a popular referendum...”’Wiesenthal said that “Germany and other major European countries with strong economic ties to Iran remain stoically silent in the wake of Khamenei’s Holocaust denial and continuing genocidal threats against Jewish people.”
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice ruling to set the stage to outlaw Jewish ritual slaughter of animals was listed as number six. “In a move reminiscent of the Nazi-era, EU court of Justice endorses Shechita ban as antisemitism approaches levels not seen since before WWII.”German cultural NGOs, a leading German diplomat, the young socialist organization and three German MPs together scored seventh place. “German elite launch all-out assault to relegitimize antisemitic BDS,” wrote Wiesenthal.BDS is an abbreviation for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign targeting Israel.“Meeting secretly for a year, the so-called Union of Cultural Institutions, comprising over two dozen of Germany’s Who’s Who – including the Goethe-Institut, the Federal Cultural Foundation, the Berlin Deutsches Theater, the German Academic Artists Exchange, the Berliner Festspiele and the Einstein Forum – attacked the Bundestag’s BDS vote as violating free speech.”The section continued, saying that “the signees specifically thanked Andreas Görgen, Foreign Ministry Director-General for Cultural Affairs and Communication, ‘for advice and discussion contributions.’ The SWC criticized Görgen earlier for defending a leading proponent of BDS in South Africa.”Wiesenthal noted that “All this may help explain why three MPs continue their support for the antisemitic German-Palestine Society (GPS) which also promotes BDS. Social Democratic MP Aydan Özogus and Green Party MP Omid Nouripour cosponsored a parliamentary initiative in 2013 to label Jewish products from the West Bank and is pro-Iranian regime, along with Left Party MP Christine Buchholz, who has defended Hezbollah’s ‘resistance’ against Israel.”The entry on the MPs added that “They all turned a deaf ear to protests from German Jewish Holocaust survivors and community leaders. Their support continues – even after a GPS traveling ‘art’ exhibition including the terrorist mantra calling for an end to Israel, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.’’’Wiesenthal said that “the prestigious Jusos – the Socialist Youth Movement of Germany’s SPD Party – passed a solidarity resolution with the youth wing of Fatah, the main faction of the PLO, as a ‘sister organization.’ Bild reported that some protesters at a Fatah Youth demonstration in 2018 wore fake explosive belts and chanted slogans calling for Israel’s destruction.”NUMBER EIGHT went to “The University of Illinois’s failure to confront the hate and defend Jewish students, [which] dates back five years. A top university official removed a Jewish student from a Student Election Commission because she was ‘Jewish: I had to remove her because she is biased.’ Last year, mandatory diversity training included ‘Palestine & Great Return March: Palestinian Resistance to 70 years of Israeli Terror.”’The University of Southern California was also listed at number eight. “USC student led an aggressive campaign to ‘IMPEACH MY ZIONIST **S.’ Jewish faculty did not rally for embattled Jewish students at UI, but the purging of three Jewish students from top student government leadership at the university... spurred dozens of Jewish faculty to publicly defend Zionists and Zionism.”The nonprofit organization Democratic Socialist of America secured the ninth spot because its “party questionnaire embeds antisemitic BDS and a ban on travel to [the] Jewish state.”Tenth place went to Daniel Jadue, the mayor of Recoleta, part of Santiago, Chile's capital.Jadue, a member of the Communist Party, may seek to run for president. Wiesenthal wrote that “Using municipal funds to finance pro-BDS and anti-Israel activities, Mayor Jadue targets the Jewish community with pernicious smears echoing The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
