The Anti-Defamation League released a new report last week documenting an “ongoing surge in hateful anti-Semitic images in the Muslim and Arab press” and has asked US Secretary of State Colin Powell to raise the issue with his Arab counterparts.
The report, which examines the media in eight Arab countries as well as the Palestinian Authority, found that in the month of October, the Arabic media frequently made use of anti-Semitic imagery to “demonize Jews as animals, compare Jews and Israelis to Nazis using symbols such as the swastika” and promoted “conspiracy theories of Jews wanting to ‘control the world’.”
“The Arab media,” notes the report, “frequently repeat the medieval blood libel charge and call up sinister stereotypical images of Jews as hooked nosed caricatures with black coats, hats and skullcaps. Some articles attempt to deny or diminish the extent of Jewish suffering in the Holocaust. Others spread conspiracy theories about Jewish or Israeli involvement in 9/11,” it said.
The report cites numerous examples, such as the airing of an anti-Semitic television series based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion by the Lebanese station Al-Manar, an organ of Hizbullah, as well as the Palestinian media’s allegations that Israel was behind the attack on an American convoy in Gaza last month.
Last week, the report states, the Qatari daily Al-Watan ran an anti-Semitic cartoon on October 29 depicting a Star of David crashing through three skyscrapers in Gaza, as a Palestinian Arab onlooker thinks to himself, “’Now we know who committed September 11.’”
Abraham Foxman, ADL National Director, said, “Anti-Semitism in the Arab world has always been troubling, but now it is a worsening problem. The failure of the international community and Arab nations to address this problem is serious.”
The group has begun circulating its findings to members of Congress, and has asked Secretary Powell to speak with the leaders of Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Oman, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Syria, all of which are found culpable in the report.
This article contributed by Michael Freund, International Affairs Correspondent
The report, which examines the media in eight Arab countries as well as the Palestinian Authority, found that in the month of October, the Arabic media frequently made use of anti-Semitic imagery to “demonize Jews as animals, compare Jews and Israelis to Nazis using symbols such as the swastika” and promoted “conspiracy theories of Jews wanting to ‘control the world’.”
“The Arab media,” notes the report, “frequently repeat the medieval blood libel charge and call up sinister stereotypical images of Jews as hooked nosed caricatures with black coats, hats and skullcaps. Some articles attempt to deny or diminish the extent of Jewish suffering in the Holocaust. Others spread conspiracy theories about Jewish or Israeli involvement in 9/11,” it said.
The report cites numerous examples, such as the airing of an anti-Semitic television series based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion by the Lebanese station Al-Manar, an organ of Hizbullah, as well as the Palestinian media’s allegations that Israel was behind the attack on an American convoy in Gaza last month.
Last week, the report states, the Qatari daily Al-Watan ran an anti-Semitic cartoon on October 29 depicting a Star of David crashing through three skyscrapers in Gaza, as a Palestinian Arab onlooker thinks to himself, “’Now we know who committed September 11.’”
Abraham Foxman, ADL National Director, said, “Anti-Semitism in the Arab world has always been troubling, but now it is a worsening problem. The failure of the international community and Arab nations to address this problem is serious.”
The group has begun circulating its findings to members of Congress, and has asked Secretary Powell to speak with the leaders of Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Oman, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Syria, all of which are found culpable in the report.
This article contributed by Michael Freund, International Affairs Correspondent