Tuesday, September 15, 2009

New Blood Libel: Jews Accused of Harvesting Algerian Children’s Organs

A shocking story alleging that Jews abducted Algerian children and smuggled them into Morocco to harvest their organs is being widely circulated by various media outlets around the world and on the Internet, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League.

According to the ADL's report, the fabricated story was first published in the Arabic-language Algerian daily El-Khabar on September 6, and has since been reported by some major media outlets such as Al Jazeera and dozens of other news Web sites and blogs around the world, including anti-Semitic sites that appreciate its propaganda value.

This outrageous accusation, which also seems to be increasingly disseminated via email, is a modern variation of the anti-Jewish blood libel. The story claims that Interpol, the international police organization, has revealed the existence of “a Jewish gang” that was “involved in the abduction of children from Algeria and trafficking of their organs.” The story is based an alleged statement by a Mustafa Khayatti, who is identified as either an Algerian official or the head of an Algerian NGO. Khayatti claims that, "…Jewish organ trafficking gangs…remain active in several Arab countries."

An English version of the story appeared on the Web site of Press TV, a state-funded Iranian TV news channel. Al Watan, an Arab-American newspaper published out of Anaheim, California, was among the first to publish the story in the U.S. It has also appeared in The Palestine Chronicle, a Washington-based online publication that often prints anti-Semitic conspiratorial stories, and Islam Online, an online publication connected to Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi.

For more on this issue and the perennial blood libel accusations against Jews, see "New Blood Libel: Jews Accused of Harvesting Algerian Children's Organs."

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