Chai Brady
There’s a need to tackle, in particular, online anti-Semitic conspiracies which connect Jewish people to the pandemic, writes Chai Brady
Antisemitism has existed in some form or other for 3,000 years and has taken many different shapes since then, some attacks on the Jewish people are obvious and easily recognised while others are more subliminal – but at times more insidious.
In Ireland, in September last year, a ‘bishop’ used a Cork ‘chapel’ to go on an anti-Semitic tirade, which was uploaded online. He falsely claimed Covid-19 “is possibly the creation of the Jews”.
‘Bishop’ Richard Williamson was twice excommunicated by the Church. His talk was held in a chapel built by the schismatic splinter group ‘SSPX Resistance’ in Maulatanvally, west Cork.
Whenever a major world crisis occurs it seems there are always elements in societies, particularly in the online world in modern times, that consistently point an accusatory finger at the Jewish people. Often, they are made the scapegoat for world crises with zero evidence.
This is no less true during the current crisis humanity faces: the Covid-19 pandemic. The virus has wracked the world for more than a year and has led to a plethora of fear and uncertainty. Honest and probing questions of governments and the holding of public health officials to account are healthy in any democracy, but what has thrived online are numerous baseless conspiracy theories.
Blaming Jews
Israeli researchers reported in April 2020 that the pandemic has sparked a rise in anti-Semitic expression, with people blaming Jews for the spread of the disease and the economic recession it has caused.
An annual report by Tel Aviv University researchers on anti-Semitism found there was an 18% spike in attacks on Jewish people in 2019. The report warned the pandemic has threatened a further ramp-up of incitement.
Speaking after the report’s publication, Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress – which is an umbrella group representing Jewish communities across the continent – said: “Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a significant rise in accusations that Jews, as individuals and as a collective, are behind the spread of the virus or are directly profiting from it. The language and imagery used clearly identifies a revival of the medieval ‘blood libels’ when Jews were accused of spreading disease, poisoning wells or controlling economies.”
Fortunately, due to lockdowns around the world, the same researchers found that the number of incidents of physical violence toward Jews across some 40 countries dropped from 456 to 371 in 2020. However, this has led to anti-Semitic rhetoric moving online, the researchers stated in this year’s report which was published earlier this month. More conspiracy theories blaming the Jewish people for the devastating impacts of the virus are materialising.
Mr Kantor warned this year that “anti-Jewish hatred online never stays online. We have to be prepared that anti-Semitic conspiracy theories could lead to physical attacks on Jews when lockdowns end”.
Jews and Israelis have been falsely blamed for spreading the virus so they could sell lucrative vaccines. The accusation is a common trope used by anti-Semitic people; blaming Jews for spreading illness and disease.
Holocaust survivors
Due to the reported increase in antisemitism on online forums during the pandemic, Holocaust survivors took to social media. The move was also in response to studies indicating younger generations lack basic knowledge regarding the genocide by the Nazis.
The survivors shared their experiences of how hate speech paved the way for mass murder. There are now several short video messages recounting their stories. Participants in the #ItStartedWithWords campaign hope to educate people about how the Nazis embarked on an insidious campaign to dehumanise and marginalise Jews years before death camps were established to carry out murder on an industrial scale.
The videos were released on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter starting earlier this month. The posts include a link to a webpage with more testimonies and teaching materials.
Speaking to the Associated Press from Montreal, a Holocaust survivor from Poland, Sidney Zoltak (89) said: “There aren’t too many of us going out and speaking anymore, we’re few in numbers but our voices are heard. We are not there to tell them stories that we read or that we heard — we are telling facts, we are telling what happened to us and to our neighbours and to our communities. And I think that this is the strongest possible way.”
Earlier this month a blogger in England was jailed after making anti-Semitic comments on a radio show. Alison Chabloz (57) made the comments in May and July in 2019 and shared the broadcasts on a blog from Derbyshire. She was found guilty of sending offensive messages by public network at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
The comments breached the conditions of a previous suspended sentence given after she was convicted of broadcasting anti-Semitic songs in 2018. The songs included claims the Holocaust never happened.
Speaking at a webinar on Holocaust remembrance last month, Israel’s ambassador to Ireland Ophir Kariv said it is easy to spot Holocaust denial but far more difficult to recognise Holocaust distortion.
Opportunities
Ambassador Kariv said: “Unfortunately, the past year has provided many opportunities for cynical actors to use the memory of the Holocaust as a tool for campaigning and spreading conspiracy theories.
“We see symbols of the Holocaust used on placards and on social media to spread misinformation. We see offensive comparisons made and the vocabulary of the Holocaust weaponised to hurl insults. This is not only desecrating the memories of the victims of Nazism but degrading to Holocaust survivors.”
The ambassador commended the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) which he said provides a comprehensive definition of anti-Semitism which includes all types of contemporary anti-Semitism.
A Jewish man living in Ireland who preferred to remain anonymous, told this paper if you spend enough time online and actively seek out antisemitism, it can be easily found. Prejudicial and downright horrific sentiments, falsehoods and dog-whistles crop up daily.
While these comments online don’t necessarily mean there are people willing to act on their anti-Semitism in certain countries, it can happen, and antisemitism whether it is online or not, should be nipped in the bud before words turn to actions, he said.
Speaking at the same event as Ambassador Kariv, Germany’s Ambassador to Ireland Deike Potzel, said “social media has become a vehicle for antisemitism”.
“Shockingly, the number of anti-Semitic attacks worldwide is rising once again, with the highest number of incidents reported in major western democracies including the United States, France, Britain and Germany.
“Recent attacks on Jews in Germany and other parts of the world, rising conspiracy myths and incidences of Holocaust denial and distortion have shown that we cannot stop in our efforts to remember and learn. Because these attacks undoubtedly make clear that antisemitism is not a phenomenon of the past. That is why remembering must also be a tool to pause and reflect on how we can make a difference today, in countering antisemitism, intolerance, holocaust denial. It needs all our support.”
On April 7 this year a delegation of the EU to Israel, together with the 26 embassies of EU member states present in Israel, released a statement on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) stating: “We stand against traditional and contemporary forms of anti-Semitism, including recent conspiracy theories falsely blaming Jews for Covid-19. We will strenuously counter such lies wherever and whenever we encounter them and continue to fight anti-Semitism and other hate crimes.”
The European Commission has tripled the EU budget for Holocaust remembrance, education and research as of 2022, and later this year are expected to present the first-ever EU comprehensive strategy to combat antisemitism and foster Jewish life. Holocaust remembrance, education and distortion will be among the central pillars of this strategy.
At the beginning of the year the European Commission published, in cooperation with the German Presidency of the IHRA [On April 1, 2021, Greece took over the IHRA Presidency from Germany], a handbook for the practical use of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.
The IHRA brings together experts in Holocaust education, research and remembrance, including museum, memorial and education professionals, historians, archaeologists, and specialists in genocide studies and other disciplines.
This handbook shows how the working definition has been applied in the EU and the UK by governments and members of civil society. It provides examples of good practices of implementing the working definition in various fields, including law enforcement, the judiciary, education and educational institutions, international and government funding, and civil society. It relates its guiding examples in the context of real-world antisemitic incidents and crimes. It also provides a checklist for using the working definition across different policy areas.
In recent times the State of Israel has been mentioned in the Oireachtas in relation to the success of their speedy vaccine programme but there has been much criticism of the country from some politicians in relation to its interaction with Palestine and its people. It’s important that constructive and warranted criticism does not cross a line.
Criticism
While the IHRA says that criticism of Israel, the only Jewish state in the world, is not antisemitic, it states: “Manifestations [of antisemitism] might include the targeting of the State of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic. Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for ‘why things go wrong.’ It is expressed in speech, writing, visual forms and action, and employs sinister stereotypes and negative character traits.”
The handbook goes on to say that in certain forms of antisemitic expression, “Israel may be used as a substitute for a conceived Jewish collectivity”.
“Rather than ‘criticising’ Israel as one might any other state, some forms of antisemitism express direct hatred exclusively against Israel or seek to apply double standards in criticising that country. Often, this manifests through the use of antisemitic tropes.”
Speaking in a personal capacity to The Irish Catholic, Michael Black who is the chairperson of the Belfast Jewish Community, said that whenever there is criticism of Israel’s actions in the Middle East, Jewish people become targets and sometimes receive blame for the actions of the State of Israel.
Vandalism
About two weeks ago, on April 15, several Jewish graves in Belfast’s City Cemetery were vandalised and headstones smashed. The PSNI are treating the destruction of the 10 graves as a hate crime. Five years ago, August 2016, 17 graves were destroyed by eight youths, some using hammers, while a crowd egged them on, which Mr Black believes was connected to the Israel-Palestine conflict in the Middle East.
“We’ve had one or two nasty emails to our community email address but in general we don’t see a lot of it, or very little of it except when there is problems in the Middle East, that’s what gets people riled up,” Mr Black said.
“The last desecration of the cemetery coincided with problems in the Middle East. There’s nothing wrong with criticising Israel, absolutely not, and like any country it has to be watched from an objective point of view to make sure that they behave properly,” he emphasises, “But why are they going after a Jewish target here? That’s an antisemitic act but they use Israel as an excuse.”
He adds: “I call myself a Northern Ireland Jew, I’m very comfortable here, as much as anybody can be with the troubles etc… I don’t feel threatened personally, I think we’ve got enough local problems. But when problems start in the Middle East that’s when you see underlying antisemitism.”
As the pandemic continues, with Ireland unlikely to return to normality any time soon and with warnings that false online conspiracy theories connecting Jewish people and institutions to Covid-19 are on the rise, the importance of tackling any rumblings of antisemitic sentiment can’t be understated.