Blood libels are nurtured by hatred and weakened by exposure. In the second of our "Blood Libel" articles, we take a closer look at how Palestinian and BDS activists, in particular, have used the pandemic to libel and incite against Israel.
For centuries, blood libels and conspiracy theories have played a tragic role in Jewish history, inciting pogroms, and responsible for the torture and murders of countless Jews. As Passover approaches and the world is engulfed in a coronavirus pandemic, a new crop of libels have arisen.
VOA commendably amends after comparing the percentage of Israeli Jews who are vaccinated versus the percentage of Israeli Arabs who are not, a formulation which falsely suggests the figure for Arabs is much lower than it actually is.
CAMERA prompts the Associated Press to clarify a misleading report that Israel "refus[ed] to accept responsibility for vaccinating the Palestinians," citing Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The amended copy now notes Israel's vaccination of Jerusalem Palestinians and more than 100,000 West Bank Palestinians.
After Israel arranged to get early access to enough COVID-19 vaccine for its entire population, outlets like the New York Times and human rights groups like Amnesty International mangled international law and the Oslo Accords to argue that Israel must also vaccinate Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
About Jesus's birthplace, where the vaccine is less available, New York Times readers would reasonably conclude — wrongly — that, unlike Jerusalem, there were no crowds in churches, no celebrations on the street.
CAMERA prompts corrections at Business Insider, along with Israeli media outlets Times of Israel and i24 News, which had erroneously reported that Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit determined that a planned pre-election visit to Israel by Pfizer's Albert Bourla would constitute prohibited election propaganda.
In one day, Haaretz's English edition struck out on two of five fundamental w's of journalism, who and where, introducing misinformation while the Hebrew coverage was accurate.
CAMERA prompts clarification of an Associated Press article which had quoted without challenge a Palestinian worker who wrongly stated that Palestinians laborers are not eligible for an Israeli work permit unless they received the covid-19 vaccine.
Satire is meant to be funny and even play on stereotypes. But there's a vast difference between that and invoking antisemitic tropes to accuse the Jewish state of murder. A recent op-ed in Ha'aretz defended SNL's Michael Che of the latter and, in doing so, smeared Israel further.
Writing in the Forward, Sari Bashi claims that Israel distributes COVID-19 vaccinates according to ethnicity, and argues that only Jews are eligible for the vaccine while non-Jews are denied the life-saving resource. It is a malevolent lie, and is one of the most dishonest accounts to appear in the mainstream press.
