A news program on official Palestinian Authority television has accused Jews of orchestrating the mugging of socialite and reality TV star Kim Kardashian in France last October, and has used the high profile theft to accuse Jews generally of being thieves.
The celeb was held up at gunpoint while vacationing in Paris. She was then tied up as the thieves plundered her apartment, stealing millions in jewelry.
While the incident would at first glance appear to be an odd platform for spreading anti-Semitic tropes, a special report on Palestine This Morning, which aired on PA television last Wednesday, portrayed the mugging as an example of what it described as rampant criminal behavior by Jews.
The Palestinian Media Watch organization, which monitors anti-Semitic incitement in the Palestinian Authority, reports that the claim, which is the latest example of anti-Jewish smears on official PA television, was a distortion of a news piece run by the Israeli Yediot Aharonot daily.
According to the Yediot Aharonot report, two of the 17 individuals named as possible suspects in the case are Jewish, including Kardashian’s driver and her driver’s brother. Police are investigating the possibility that one of the two may have tipped off the thieves, telling them that Kardashian’s bodyguard was not on the premises at the time.
The suspected thieves themselves, however, are not Jewish, and the alleged organizers behind the operation are Muslim immigrants from Algeria.
Nevertheless, a resident “Israel affairs expert”, Fayez Abbas, explained the alleged Jewish connection to the story:
"Jews who robbed singer (sic.) Kim Kardashian have been arrested. It turns out that they are Jews. That is what is written - it's not me who says they are thieves. That is written in Yediot Aharonot, it's not from me. It says "Jews." They are thieves. In other words - they steal lands here too, no? But the engagement ring worth $5 million could not be found. They did not find it. The Jews hid it and turned it into something else."