Old blood libel of Jews stealing organs spreads in the Arab world

Anti-Semitic cartoons that claims that Israelis is killing Arabs to steal their organs, first leveled in Sweden’s leading newspaper last month, have spread to the Arab World.

The Algerian daily Al-Khabar asserting that young children are being kidnapped from Algeria’s cities, transported to Morocco, and then sold to Israelis and American Jews who then harvest their organs for sale on the black market.

The outlandish story seems to be gaining momentum on mainstream Arab and Muslim Web sites, and mirrors the recent report in Aftonbladet alleging that IDF soldiers did the same with Palestinians. The Algerian report also claims Jews would sell the organs in Israel and the United States for anywhere between USD 20,000 to USD 100,000.

The official Iranian news agency PressTV reported that the suspected Jews are connected to Israeli rabbi Levi Rosenbaum, who was recently arrested in New Jersey for his involvement in importing human organs.

Meanwhile, Jewish communities in the US, Russia and Argentina have been targeted with anti-Semitic attacks ahead of the High Holy Days, which starts with Rosh Hashana this coming Friday.

Anti-Semitic grafiti in Latvia was made by unknown vandals painted red swastikas on two Seattle-area synagogues over the past weekend. The swastikas and the phrase «4th Riech» were painted on the synagogues, reported the Seattle Times, while the word Nazi and at least eight other swastikas also were painted on a sidewalk and driveway in the area.

In Russia, a group of skinheads were arrested last Saturday for arson in the far east city of Khabarovsk after attacking a synagogue and a police investigator’s house with Molotov cocktails. The gang allegedly targeted children with bombs thrown into a children’s room of the synagogue as well as the bedroom they believed the local policeman’s children slept, according the Russian Interior Ministry spokesman. The policeman investigates cases involving extremist violence.

And in Argentina, 58 gravestones were destroyed at a Jewish cemetery in Buenos Aires sometime between Friday afternoon and Saturday. Julio Schlusser, Secretary-General of the Jewish Community in Argentina said on Sunday that some of the graves included victims of the 1994 terror attack on the AMIA Jewish community center.

Meantime, a German university student reportedly will appeal a fine for displaying an Israeli flag in response to an anti-Israel rally. A German policeman had insisted that waving the flag in front of Muslim protestors was provocative and a criminal offense.

The incident is similar to a case in Sweden last week in which a Swedish police chief ordered five individuals wearing the Magen David (Star of David) symbol on their chests to leave a public area at once. The police commander reportedly told the small group, «You can absolutely not stand here with those symbols» as they stood across the street from a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

First published: September 18th, 2009.

Source: ICEJ.org