JERUSALEM (JTA) — A conspiracy theory alleging a Jewish plot to harvest organs from Algerian children reportedly is spreading online.
An article in the Algerian daily Al-Khabar said that Algerian children were being kidnapped into Morocco and sold to Israelis and American Jews to harvest their organs for sale. It comes in the wake of a mid-August feature article in a Swedish newspaper alleging that Israeli soldiers were harvesting organs from Palestinians.
The conspiracy theory has spread online, including to American-based Arabic publications, according to the Jerusalem Post, as well as to Press TV, the official Iranian news agency. Press TV said the Jewish group of organ sellers is connected to Rabbi Levi Rosenbaum, who was arrested recently in New Jersey for organ trafficking.
“This is a new variation of the ancient blood libel,” said Abraham Foxman, ADL’s national director. “The only difference is that today we have the Internet, which enables a hateful canard to spread, not just door to door or village to village but globally in a matter of nanoseconds.”
ADL reported that a series of editorial cartoons has appeared in newspapers in Jordan, Oman, Qatar and other Arab countries depicting Israeli soldiers as vicious butchers gleefully cutting off the body parts of Arabs, and accusing Israel of harvesting Palestinian organs.
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