From the Black Plague of the 14th Century Europe to the Measles outbreak in America in 2018, Jews have been systematically blamed for creation and the spread of most of the World's epidemics. The recent Coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic is no different and has sparked a massive surge in antisemitism, both classic and new.
The radical “As a Jew” far left group IfNotNow, co-founded by two previous 'Antisemites of the Week' Simone Zimmerman and Max Berger, started a petition attacking Israel for the Coronavirus pandemic in Gaza BEFORE a single case of COVID19 was even identified in the highly populated area. For IfNotNow, the point of the petition was not to help the people of Gaza but rather to lay the ground work in order to villainize and falsely accuse the Jewish people of Israel for the COVID19 pandemic.
Sadly, IfNotNow is not alone; hundreds of antisemitic posts can be found on social media these days, posted by far-left extremists, alt-right members, BDS supporters, and other hate groups.
Some accusing Jews living in Israel and the diaspora of spreading the virus, some comparing the Jewish State to the Coronavirus in order to delegitimize Israel, and others calling for intentional infection of Jews with the virus.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism was established to identify this exact type of antisemitism in order to combat the persecution of Jews. The IHRA Definition states that images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. disease, cancer or virus) to characterize Israel and/or Jews is a clear expression of antisemitism.
The above image on the left was also used by the pro-BDS student organization Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to announce the scaling back of the "Israeli Apartheid Week" events and campus-activities across the U.S. to online platforms.
Similar hate groups used Twitter to promote Jew hatred by accusing Jews of the COVID19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, Rick Wiles from TruNews, a white supremacy outlet which referred to the Presidential impeachment as a “Jew coup,” posted over a dozen antisemitic tweets and stated Jews were spreading COVID19 in their synagogues. Not to be outdone, longtime Klan leader and now international spokesman for Holocaust denial, David Duke accused Jews of the pandemic.
It's of no surprise that antisemitic countries like Turkey and Iran are happy to play along in the "Jew" blame game; a source close to President Erdogan claimed the virus “serves Zionist interests” on state run TV, and an English language media outlet in Iran falsely proclaimed that “Zionist elements developed a deadlier strain of coronavirus against Iran.”
Even Hollywood is taking a swing at it! As Israel rushes to put out a COVID19 vaccine, actress Rosanna Arquette tweeted a conspiracy theory that Israel was aware of the virus and a Jewish owned company, Oscar, was profiting from it. Arquette quickly deleted the post and issued an apology, claiming that she has a Jewish mother and meant no harm.
If we close our eyes for a moment, it truly appears we have fallen back in time. The great antisemitic conspiracies that Jews cause the plagues of the world never went away; rather they were in a dormant slumber.
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread in the world and cause suffering and economic downturn, we expect Jew-haters to raise their ugly heads and blame the Jewish people for creating the disease, for spreading it globally, for causing the looming recession and for profiting from all of the above.