Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations Dr. Shimon Samuels penned a letter to French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, expressing disgust at a campaign against French Jewish doctors.
According to Dr. Samuels, the newer campaign is reminiscent of medieval charges of poisoning wells, the 1940s arrests by Vichy, France, and Stalin's 1951 to 1953 "killer Jewish doctors plot" against the Soviet Union.
The newspaper Liberation noted the extreme-right Youtube channel Qui ("Who"). The "Who" became clearer in interviews of Parisians at the "Anti-Vac" Saturday marches across France, where they revealed the Qui - without the mention of "Jew" - "the 'Who' controls the media...the word COVID is Hebrew...it is in the Talmud etc."
The letter charged: "Mr. Minister, the anti-vaccine cause in France is being hijacked for Jew-hatred."
The Centre called on Minister Darmanin to close down the Qui channel.
"Despite President Macron's pleas, anti-vaccination is, though misguided, a legal right. However, when it becomes a vector for antisemitism and endangers Jewish doctors, it is a hate-crime under French law, which must be invoked," argued Samuels.
"Mr. Minister, French Jewish doctors and those thought to be Jewish by the hatemongers must be protected. The irony is that the antisemites may one day be saved by a doctor who happens to be Jewish
"We await your response to this outrage," concluded Samuels.