A Point of View: From a whisper to a roar: The return of the blood libel

If there is one thing we have learned from history, it is that predicable patterns of behavior provide the underpinnings of virulent anti-Semitism. Like a lethal virus or a pestilence, the disease of Jew-hatred cannot flourish by itself. It needs the right conditions, the right combination of circumstances and a proper environment to grow and spread.

We know, for example, that the Holocaust didn't begin with the bricks and mortar of the gas chambers. It started with words - hateful words, ugly words - words that could inspire enough hatred to create the conditions for a rapid-fire combustion that led to the annihilation of six million Jews and millions of others.

And we know that the 9/11 terror attacks in the US didn't start with airplanes and boxcutters. Those attacks began with hateful ideas and words that inspired the terrorists to maim and kill more than 3,000 innocent people.

For centuries, one of the most powerful tools in the arsenal of anti-Semites has been the ability to fuel hatred by creating a mythical idea of Jews being a pathologically loathsome people. These notions are founded in stereotypical attributes and hateful canards - that Jews are greedy, that they keep to themselves, that they are all-powerful, that they are "blood-suckers," or that they control the government or the media in order to advance sinister agendas.

Perhaps the worst manifestation of this hatred is the ancient blood libel. This odious myth, handed down through the centuries from medieval times to the present day, suggests that Jews prepare their Passover matzot with the sacrificial blood of Christian children. This despicable slander led to pogroms, expulsions and bloodshed against Jews throughout history.

The blood libel is recognized as one of the taproots of anti-Semitism. And it is as alive and well today as it was more than a century ago. Most recently it resurfaced with accusations now swirling through the blogosphere that American Jews and Israeli soldiers are involved in a broad conspiracy to harvest organs for profit.

It started as a whisper. The whispers suggested that Israeli soldiers tasked with patrolling the Palestinian West Bank weren't just policing and keeping the peace, but were rather involved in something much more nefarious - capturing innocent civilians so their organs could be harvested and illegally sold on the black market.

As with all urban legends of the Internet age, the source of this rumor isn't clear. We do know, however, that the news of the arrest of several high-profile public figures and several rabbis in New Jersey on charges of graft and money-laundering may have inspired the initial whisper campaign.

Then came the "news" out of Sweden that - yes - Israeli soldiers were in fact involved in illegally harvesting organs. This, according to the mainstream Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, which ran a two-page spread detailing seamy allegations of a conspiracy by the Israel Defense Forces to remove organs from kidnapped Palestinian civilians.

This was, pure and simple, a fabrication cut from whole cloth. The article, titled "They plunder the organs of our sons," had no basis in fact. It relied on claims by a handful of Palestinians who spoke to the reporter.  No effort was made to investigate those claims. And the ink had barely dried before some of the Palestinian "sources" recanted.

The scandalous Aftonbladet story appeared on August 17.  In the pre-Internet era it might have made few ripples beyond Scandinavia. But instead, the story, bereft of even a grain of truth, spread like wildfire across the Internet and took on a life of its own.

The Arab and Muslim press, which routinely dabble in anti-Semitism both in print news articles and in editorial cartoons, eagerly picked up the theme in late August and early September. Newspapers in Jordan, Qatar and Oman ran a series of cartoons over several days portraying Israeli soldiers as vicious butchers, gleefully cutting off the body parts of Arabs. One cartoon cast the state of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank as a side of beef being carved up by a stereotypical black-hatted Jew.

In the latest iteration of this blood libel, it is now Algerians who are the alleged victims of an international Jewish conspiracy to harvest organs.

By mid-September, the blogosphere and many Arab and Muslim media outlets had picked up on a story, apparently first reported on September 6 by Algeria's daily newspaper Al-Khabar, that bands of Moroccans and Algerians were roaming the streets of Algeria's cities and kidnapping young children, who were taken into Morocco, where they were purportedly sold to Israelis and American Jews to have their organs removed.

The fabricated story has since been reported by some mainstream media outlets in the Middle East, such as the pan-Arab satellite network Al Jazeera, and was subsequently picked up by dozens of other news sites and blogs around the world, including anti-Semitic sites that appreciate its propaganda value.

The story, which also seems to be increasingly disseminated via e-mail, is nothing less than a modern variation of the ancient blood libel.  It claims that Interpol, the international police organization, has revealed the existence of "a Jewish gang" that was "involved in the abduction of children from Algeria and trafficking of their organs." 
 
What are the lessons to be taken away from this new revival of the blood libel?

One is that we cannot be complacent when faced with misinformation and slander. In the new 24-hour media environment, which is fueled by rumors in the blogosphere, it is far easier than ever before for myths to spin out of control before someone bothers to check the facts. And we know what can happen when anti-Semitism is left unchecked.

There needs to be an immediate response, not just from watchdog organizations, but from governments and people of authority, who will to stand up to make clear that such unfounded rumors playing on age-old stereotypes about Jews are unacceptable.

Sweden's leadership, faced with a controversy not of their making, failed in this moral test by setting up the Aftonbladet blood libel story as a matter of freedom of the press. In fact, they were defending the indefensible, a terrible fiction masquerading as fact.

Another lesson is the need for more education, especially in democratic societies that can serve as the stalwarts against anti-Semitism. It is vital that societies continue to educate their young people about the dangers of anti-Semitism and the history of the Holocaust so that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated - never, ever again.