Accusing Israel
of Genocide

While blood libels claims have typically focused on far-fetched allegations that Jews were using the blood of gentiles for ritual purpose, contemporary accusations have focused on Israeli-Palestinian conflict exaggerated claims of violence towards Arab populations.

A common theme often included in these modern-day claims is the false accusation that the State of Israel is carrying out a genocide against Palestinians. Images associated with historic representations of blood libel are often utilized in anti-Zionist cartoons, and some publications have used imagery of Israeli leaders drinking Palestinians’ blood or eating Palestinian children.

Some have even sought to compare Israeli military operations to those of Nazi Germany and argue that Israel is carrying out a genocide against the Palestinians. However, over the past decades, the Palestinian population has grown by all metrics, and is projected to continue doing so. To compare this to the murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust is preposterous and diminishes the pain of those who were murdered and suffered during the Holocaust, as well as the collective pain felt by the Jewish people.

Others have accused Israel of poisoning Palestinian wells allege that Israel harvests the organs of “martyred” Palestinians, and state that Zionists have “an unquenchable thirst for Palestinian blood.”

The perpetuation of this antisemitic trope has real effects on Jews across the world. It has led to a dramatic surge in online antisemitic hate and antisemitic attacks on Jews in the Diaspora and Jewish institutions. During times of increased violence in Israel (such as the Hamas–Israel conflict of May 2021), Jewish communities and religious institutions worldwide are targeted. Anti-Israel demonstrators gather outside synagogues and Jewish community centers, equating Jews with the Israeli military and to blame Jews around the world for the latest violence in the Middle East.

To be clear, it is not inherently antisemitic to criticize specific Israeli policies. In fact, it is not uncommon for Israelis, even ones serving in the Knesset, to disagree with government policy. Dr. Deborah Lipstadt, a respected analyst of modern-day antisemitism, notes that the best example of that is found at “cafes in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem.” Delegitimizing Israel, however, and denying its right to exist is antisemitic.