Turkey – like much of the world – is dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. Sadly, the number of cases and casualties continues rising. Yet many anti-Semites in the country are busy on social media, demonstrating their pathological hatred for Jews, otherwise known as Judeopathy.
The Turkish news website Avlaremoz, which covers Jewish-related incidents, is monitoring related posts on Twitter.
When Turkey officially confirmed the first case of Covid-19 on March 11, many Turkish Twitter users shared anti-Jewish social media posts targeting Jews and Israel. These posts accused them of creating and spreading the virus for political and economic gain. Some of the Twitter posts included:
- “The virus is in Turkey. Okay. It is almost all around the world. But why is it not in and around Israel? It is certain that they [Israel] also have the cure but let’s see when the Jew will bring it out.”
- “The company that will find the medicine will be the richest company of the world. It is no coincidence that it will definitely be a Jewish company.”
- “People are flocking to cleaning products whose owners are Jewish. People are waiting for a medication whose owner is also Jewish. No Jew has caught the virus yet. May you drown in the perceptions [you’re falsely creating]. Allah is great.”
One user claimed that “ahl as-sunnah,” or the adherents of Sunni Islam, will not be affected by the virus. This user also said that the reason why Saudi Arabia and Iran have Covid-19 cases is “because they are Jews who think they are Muslim.” Another user urged that as a precaution against the disease, “people should not watch Fox TV and other Jewish TV channels.”
On March 11, the Turkish website of the Sputnik news channel reported that scientists at the Ness Ziona Institute for Biological Research in Israel was to announce that their work on the coronavirus vaccine was nearly completed.
Many anti-Semites in Turkey again spread hateful, anti-Jewish conspiracies on social media. This included comments such as “it’s Israel that has created the poison so they should have its antidote.”
Some claimed that Israel invented the virus to later come up with a vaccine, which it already had in store, to achieve some hidden agenda such as “making nations grateful to Israel and seizing Jerusalem” or “taking hold of people.” They asserted that “Jews are not to be trusted” and “if it is Israel, it is hard to look for innocence.”
They also presented their opinions about what they believed to be the possible contents of the vaccine — such as chemicals “to change our genetics” and “infertility drugs” — that they thought Israel would prepare to damage others. Other Twitter posts included:
- “F.ck Israel. Israel and Jewish dogs are the biggest virus on the humanity.”
- “It’s possible that they will not give the vaccine [to the world] because they think they’re the superior race.”
- “Now we know who have turned the virus into a weapon. They’re about to announce they have the cure.”
- “They [Israel] produce all kinds of seeds with GMO [genetically modified organisms] and poisonous agricultural pesticides. If the news is true, I think the vaccine was produced a long time ago. They’ve only waited for the world to panic even more so that they could advertise the vaccine better to sell it with a much higher price.”
And when the Covid-19-related deaths or cases in Israel were reported, some Turkish Twitter users celebrated the news and called for even more casualties. One user referred to Israelis as “creatures who are under the guise of humans.” Another one claimed that governments created and spread the virus. This user said that governments already have its “serum” and asked: “Why are Jewish dogs not affected by it?”
Other posts included:
- “The Israeli minister of health and his wife have caught the coronavirus. May other Jews be next. Until some of the elites of the world die, I will not believe this virus was not created in a laboratory.”
- “The head of Israeli Mossad, Israeli chief of general staff and even Netanyahu are all under quarantine due to the coronavirus. May Allah make them even worse.”
- “May they croak. I hope the whole of Israel catches the coronavirus.”
- “Israeli dogs are the biggest virus in the world.”
- “Can’t it be that those who carried out the so-called Jewish genocide to occupy Jerusalem came up with the coronavirus to occupy the East [Eastern Turkey]?”
- “They’ll pretend to be innocent. All filths are caused by them anyway. I’m sure there’s a cure and nothing bad will happen to them.”
So in all cases — including Israelis catching the coronavirus and trying to find a cure for it — Jews were targeted with hateful epithets and referred to as the cause of the pandemic.
This type of anti-Semitism appears completely pathological or as an extreme case of Judeopathy. Professor Alan Dershowitz explains this phenomenon in his book Chutzpah:
“The label ‘anti-Semite,’ invented by anti-Semites as a proud epithet, is an inherently neutral term,” he writes. “It simply means those who are against Jews. It does not necessarily connote the sickness and evil inherent in such bigotry. The term ‘Judeopath’ would seem far more fitting. It suggests a pathological hatred of Jews and clearly puts the onus on those who hate rather than on those who are hated. No one would be proud of being labeled Judeopathic, as some claim pride in the label anti-Semitic.”
Such intense bigotry against Jewish people is widespread in Turkey and other Muslim societies.
In his book The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History, Dr. Andrew Bostom provides many examples of antisemitic motifs in Muslim documents reaching back to the beginnings of Islam, demonstrating that Jew-hatred is sanctioned by Islamic scriptures.
Here is one of the egregious verses in the Koran:
Koran 2:65: “We [Allah] said to them [the Jews], ‘You will be transformed into despised apes.’ So We used them as a warning to their people and to the following generations, as well as a lesson for the Allah-fearing.”
Sadly, these hateful teachings have been systematically turned into deeds. Islam has been violently demonstrating Jew-hatred since the 7th century. Hence Arabia, where Islam emerged, is Judenrein and has been for 1400 years, notes Dr. Bill Warner, the founding President of the Center for the Study of Political Islam (CSPI).
The Islamic scriptures appear to have for centuries greatly shaped the views and actions of many Muslims concerning Jewish people.
Then what to do? Despite all accusations of “racism” or “Islamophobia,” those who truly care about human rights should speak out more against this violent hatred targeting Jewish people, as in 2015, journalist Miriam Raftery called on “people of good faith everywhere to commit … to break the apathy and silence and to stand up and speak out against history’s oldest hate wherever it rears its ugly head.”
This is what needs to be done on an individual level. But much more wide-scale steps should be taken on a collective level.
Dr. Bostom presents a revolutionary idea in the preface of his groundbreaking book:
“There is no cause, at present, for any optimism that Islam’s major religious teaching centers will soon begin a desperately needed process to remove canonical Islamic Antisemitism from the minbar [mosques]. However, we must still hope—against hope—that non-Muslim religious and civic leaders, notably Jews, will overcome their timorous, stifling cultural relativism, and demand such a momentous Islamic initiative.”
Until this happens and maybe even after that, we will continue hearing the most vile and hateful comments by radical Muslims on social media wishing death on Jewish people and seeing them act on their wish when they could.
Uzay Bulut is a Turkish journalist and political analyst formerly based in Ankara.