Turkish Politicians Blame Jews for the Coronavirus Global Pandemic

Members of the Turkish press and public have reacted to the global spread of COVID-19, colloquially known as the Coronavirus, blaming it on Jews and other unspecified political actors and saying that the virus cannot be transmitted in mosques. On March 13, Turkish medical doctor Dr. Yavuz Dizdar claimed that 60% of the population of Turkey was already infected with the virus and that the Ministry of Health, in order to hide this fact, was not providing test kits.

Fatih Erbakan, who is the head of Refah Party and the son of late Turkish Islamist politician and former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan, who is generally thought to have been President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's political mentor, said of the virus in a speech reported on March 6: "Though we do not have certain evidence, this virus serves Zionism's goals of decreasing the number of people and preventing it from increasing, and important research expresses this. [Necmettin] Erbakan said: 'Zionism is a five-thousand-year-old bacteria that has caused the suffering of people.”

A video recently appeared on social media showing a Turkish bus driver saying that all the epidemics in recent history, from AIDS to Ebola, had been created by pharmaceutical companies. The bus driver then asked: "And to whom do most of the pharmaceutical companies belong? To the Jews." A passenger said: "[The Jews] will do anything to end the lineage of the Turks." Another said: "Not only Turks, sister, they will do anything to bring the world to its knees." The bus driver then said: "Anyway the Jews are a cursed race.

On March 10, Abdurrahman Dilipak, a columnist for daily Yeni Akit, wrote: "Look how some people today have rolled up their sleeves to bring the Nazi dream to life. This is a fascist plan. Once they have finished their work with the gays and lesbians, of whom the appear to take ownership, their plan for their 'removal' is ready on the table, and this is an ordinary and easy task for them. It's as if for them a woman is just a bionic robot doing its incubation duty on a human farm. But of course, they think that the population of the world must first be greatly decreased. The most cowardly example of this is the subversion and sterilization of the family! This is what they want to do. Maybe tomorrow they will present the vaccine for Corona as a medicine, and they will add something sterilizing to it. And you know how the virus can spread on money, so that's good for Bitcoin."

ViacomCBS Cancels Linda Sarsour Women’s History Month Event

ViacomCBS canceled an event this week featuring former Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour, who is known for her support of the anti-Israel BDS movement and has been accused of spreading antisemitism.

The Women’s History Month event on Wednesday was specifically going to be hosted by the multinational media conglomerate’s Office of Global Inclusion, a source familiar with the situation told JNS, which first reported on the scheduled event.

ViacomCBS spokesperson Justin Dini told JNS, “This event was cancelled well in advance of Wednesday.” Dini did not respond to a request for comment as to exactly when and why the event was cancelled.

“Maybe [Sarsour] was too busy being a surrogate for the [Vermont Sen. Bernie] Sanders [Democratic presidential] campaign to show up, but the fact remains that the folks at ViacomCBS thought that a woman who lauded an anti-Semite like Louis Farrakhan is a symbol of ‘inclusion,’ ” Dexter Van Zile, a researcher at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), told JNS.

Nonetheless, “they canceled, and they deserve some credit for that,” he said.

23-Year-Old Woman Pleads Guilty to Posting Nazi Propaganda on High School Campus

A 23-year-old woman accused of posting Nazi propaganda posters at two campuses in Orange County last year was sentenced Wednesday to a year of informal probation and 40 hours of community service. 

As part of a plea deal offered by the court, Grace Elisabeth Ziesmer of Fullerton was ordered to pay roughly $517 in restitution after she agreed to plead guilty to a count of misdemeanor vandalism and two misdemeanor counts of graffiti, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Ziesmer was charged last year after authorities said she posted antisemitic fliers with Nazi symbols on light poles near Fullerton College and on Newport Harbor High School’s campus in Newport Beach. 

School officials at Newport Harbor called police in March after they found 10 fliers, each 8 by 11 inches — some bearing swastikas — plastered around the campus. The incident occurred roughly a week after a viral photo showed students giving Nazi salutes while gathered around a swastika formed by red cups during a house party.

Prosecutors declined to charge Ziesmer with a hate crimes enhancement because they said there was a lack of sufficient evidence that her postings were directed at a particular victim for being Jewish. The district attorney’s office called the situation a “hate incident” in a news release. 

“It could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant’s conduct was directed at the schools because of their connection with the Jewish people or the Jewish religion, based on evidence and interviews conducted in the case,” the district attorney’s office wrote in a prepared statement.