Antisemitism And The Covid-19 Conspiracy Theories
The centuries-old stereotype that Jews spread diseases was reactivated during the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Predrag Kon is head of the Health-crisis Team of the Republic of Serbia in charge of efforts to curb the COVID-19 pandemics. Dr. Predrag Kon is Jewish. In November 2020, a graffiti “Dr. Kon on a stake!” with the crossed-out Star of David appeared in Novi Sad. The abbreviation “Dr” was in quotation marks to indicate sarcasm, alluding that Dr. Kon is not a “real doctor.”
In a separate incident, antisemitic posters appeared on the streets of Belgrade, claiming that the pandemic was just a cover for establishing a “global Jewish government.”
“Jews Seek Global Domination”
“Jews are members of a secret global elite that aims at achieving world domination”
Two common contemporary conspiracy theories serve this stereotype: 1) ZOG/ Zionist Occupied Government is an antisemitic political catchphrase of the extreme right that denotes a government that is supposedly ruled by Jews. The term takes up the old conspiracy ideology of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” that wealthy Jews would conspire to establish a world government.
“Jews Control Politics And Media” And Are To Blame For Current Global Problems
A flyer that was distributed in a tram in Cologne asked the rhetorical questions “Do we really only have a Corona problem? Or don’t we actually have predominantly a Jew-problem?” while listing Angela Merkel as a Jewess of Polish origin connected to B’nai B’rith, Jens Spahn as “gay Jew” connected to the Bilderberg conference, Heiko Maas as a Jew and leading censor and Christian Drosten as pro-government virologist and Jew “according to his phenotype”. It closes with the words that “the more Jews in politics and media, the worse the conditions”.
The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion
The infamous antisemitic fabrication The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a text claiming to have exposed a Jewish plan for global domination, first appeared in print in Russia in 1903. It was translated into Greek in 1920, but it remained “unexploited” in the archive of the Greek Foreign Ministry. The Protocols started gaining publicity in 1925, thanks to the work of Dr. Andronikos, an Athenian pseudointellectual, whose medical authority and adherence to nationalism, fascism and anticommunism made him an ideal propagandist of the Protocols through the press. In early 1928 the dailies To Fos and Makedonia in Thessaloniki − the city where more than 50,000 out of 70,000 Greek Jews dwelled − published a Greek translation of the Protocols. Thereafter, the antisemitic focus of Makedonia intensified. In June 1931, members of the fascist organization “Ethniki Enosis Ellas” (“EEE”, National Union Hellas), acting upon allegations of anti-national behavior of local Jews published in Makedonia, launched a pogrom against the poor Jewish neighborhood of Campbell.
“The Jews Are To Blame For Everything”
The Internet and social networks have promoted the spread and radicalization of antisemitism − across the board, all facets of antisemitism can be found.
As soon as “the Jews” are assigned the role of the guilty ones by many mutually reinforcing digital users − be it with regard to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the 2007 financial and economic crisis, global warming, or the 2015 arrival of refugees − this can have fatal consequences. The apppeal of antisemitic worldviews increases especially in times of crisis, when collective fears and feelings of powerlessness (re)activate the need for simple explanatory models and scapegoats.
The “Happy Merchant” Meme
The “Happy Merchant” meme, also known as Jew-bwa-ha-ha.gif is a derogatory caricature of a stereotypical Jewish man using signifiers such as a kippah, long nose, full beard, malicious smile and the rubbing of hands, suggesting nefarious plans, for an antisemitic image. Posted on image boards where politics is discussed, such as 4chan/pol, it is used to spread antisemitic ideas.
Absolving Nazi Collaborator Milan Nedić Of War Crimes
“Milan Nedić and his puppet government bare no responsibility for the Holocaust in Serbia.”. On February 4, 2021, about fifty members of the extreme right-wing organization “Traditionalists” gathered in front of the Serbian Orthodox Assumption Church in Novi Sad, one of the main churches in the city centre, to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Milan Nedić − the quisling prime minister during the Nazi occupation of Serbia.
The Polish Historian Who Denies History
Dr. Ewa Kurek lectures: “Jews may have viewed the ghetto as an opportunity to gain autonomy from Poles.” [On the allegedly good situation of Jews in ghettos in occupied Poland]. “We need to know whether 1,600 people were actually murdered there or 16. This is the basis from which we can reconstruct what actually happened.”
The “Holocaust Promotion Lobby”
“The Holocaust is an exaggeration, a lie, and/or an invention of the ‘Holocaust Promotion Lobby’.” (Ernst Zündel). Holocaust denial uses different strategies and lines of argumentation. The most extreme strategy is to explicitly deny the fact that the genocide of Jewish people took place. Consequently, it is denied that gas chambers in concentration camps were used to murder people, or it is denied that they were functional or that they even existed. The number of Holocaust victims will be reduced from several million to a few hundred thousand people. And, mortality is exclusively due to malnutrition and diseases.
Dismissing The Truth Of The Nazi Concentration Camps
With the help of pseudo-scientific expert opinions, the feasibility of mass murder in Nazi concentration camps is doubted. Holocaust deniers argue, for example, that no residues of poison gas were found in the gas chambers or that the crematoria in Auschwitz were far too small for mass cremation of corpses. Holocaust deniers like David Irving argue that there is no proof for gas chambers in Auschwitz.
Distorting The Holocaust
Anti-semitic caricatures in left-wing and traditional media compare Israeli politics with Nazi ideologies and the Shoah. In the first caricature, which is most representative of the trend of the left-wing press upon resurgence of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israel’s interests are compared with Nazi crimes and Israeli citizens with neo-Nazis. The Gaza Strip is portrayed as a concentration camp surrounded by barbed wire. Since the Gaza Strip is populated solely by Palestinians, the imprisoned person in the caricature can be assumed to be a Palestinian. At the same time, the striped uniform with the map of the Gaza Strip upon it directly compares the situation of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to the situation of the Jews during the Holocaust and their stigmatisation with the Star of David.
Fuelling Ethnic Unrest
The Middle East conflict is sometimes used as a political tool for regional political, nationalistic and ethnic disputes in the former Yugoslavia. This might also instigate Israel-related antisemitism. From time to time, there are pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli rallies and events in many places around Europe, particularly when the Israel-Palestine conflict escalates. In parts of Serbia with a Muslim majority such as Kosovo and Metohija or the Sandzak region, and other countries in the Western Balkan region such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, the pro and contra Israel-Palestine rallies can be used as a political tool in regional political, nationalistic, and ethnic disputes.