Throughout history, the Jewish people have been subjected to a bewildering array of unfounded accusations—each as malicious as the next. One of the most pernicious, and perhaps the most enduring, is the blood libel—the grotesque and utterly false claim that Jews murder Christian children and use their blood for ritual purposes. Born in 12th-century England, the blood libel has been deployed time and again to justify violence, pogroms, and expulsions, painting Jews as a malevolent, criminal force that must be eradicated. Yet, despite the centuries that have passed, this dreadful myth has not vanished; instead, it has been reshaped, redefined, and repackaged in various forms. Each new iteration of this lie pursues the same objective: to criminalise, dehumanise, and justify violence against Jews.
The blood libel made its first recorded appearance in 1144, when the body of a young boy, William, was found in Norwich. Without a shred of evidence, the Jewish community was accused of ritually murdering him, simply for being Christian. This false accusation, despite its complete lack of foundation, was fanned into a flame of fury, and violent acts against Jews quickly followed. The story was spread by Thomas of Monmouth, a monk who painted the event as a martyrdom, thereby embedding the idea of Jewish ritual murder into Christian doctrine. What followed was a dark and painful chapter in the history of the Jewish people, setting a horrifying precedent for centuries of violence, exclusion, and suffering.
As the centuries passed, the blood libel not only endured but was institutionalised. By the 15th century, it had firmly established itself within the Catholic Church. The Trent Affair of 1475, in which a two-year-old boy named Simon was found dead in Italy, is one of the most infamous instances. Again, the Jewish community was falsely accused of ritual murder. This time, the Church canonised Simon as a martyr, thus embedding the blood libel deeply into religious doctrine. The Church’s endorsement gave the accusation an aura of legitimacy and power, solidifying the myth that Jews were an eternal threat to Christian society. This institutionalised blood libel didn’t just justify local persecution; it served as a rationale for expulsions and violence against Jews across Europe, fuelling the fire of antisemitism for generations.
Fast forward to the 19th century, and we see the blood libel taking on yet another form. In 1840, the Jewish community in Damascus was accused of murdering a Christian monk, Father Thomas, and his servant. In this case, the blood libel wasn’t just a religious accusation—it was politically charged. French consular officials, keen to exploit the affair to undermine the Ottoman Empire, fanned the flames of the blood libel to further their own interests. Jewish leaders were arrested, tortured, and coerced into confessions, despite the complete absence of evidence. The political manipulation of the blood libel in this case reveals its adaptability—it was no longer simply a religious accusation; it was a tool of geopolitics, wielded by powerful actors to destabilise the region for their own benefit.
In the early 20th century, the blood libel took yet another alarming turn, with the Kishinev Pogrom of 1903. This time, rumours of Jewish ritual murder once again sparked a violent mob attack against Jewish communities, resulting in over 45 deaths. The local press played a significant role in spreading these false accusations, using sensationalist rhetoric to fuel hatred and incite violence. The Kishinev Pogrom marked a critical turning point, for it showed how the blood libel could now be amplified by the media, marking the beginning of a new era in which the myth could spread far beyond local communities, reaching entire nations. This paved the way for even broader, state-sponsored antisemitism in the 20th century.
The Beilis Affair in 1913 provides yet another example of the blood libel being repurposed for political ends. Mendel Beilis, a Jewish factory worker in Tsarist Russia, was accused of ritually murdering a Christian boy, Andrei Yushchinsky. Despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence and a complete lack of credible evidence to support the accusations, Beilis was put on trial in a climate of political and social unrest. The trial became a spectacle, a tool to scapegoat Jews for Russia’s societal instability. Once again, the blood libel had morphed, not only serving to demonise Jews but also to divert attention from Russia’s deeper political and social issues, providing a convenient distraction for a government under threat.
Now, in the 21st century, the blood libel has taken on new and even more dangerous forms. Today, we face accusations like the genocide libel, the coloniser libel, and the famine libel—each an iteration of the same ancient hatred, each seeking to delegitimise Israel and criminalise the Jewish people.
The genocide libel accuses Israel of attempting to exterminate the Palestinian people. This claim is, of course, rooted in complete distortion. To call Israel a genocidal state is to ignore the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to misapply a term as serious as "genocide" to a situation that is far more complex. This accusation paints Israel as a monolithic, malevolent force, intent on eradicating an entire population. It is a deliberate distortion of reality, one that seeks to demonise Jews and Israel for the actions of extremists, ignoring the context of self-defence and the role of terror groups like Hamas.
Similarly, the coloniser libel casts Jews, particularly through the state of Israel, as colonial oppressors, despite the fact that Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel. This accusation erases the historical connection Jews have to the region, misapplying the term colonialism to a people returning to their ancestral homeland. It seeks to delegitimise Jewish self-determination, portraying Jews as foreign invaders rather than a people with a legitimate right to their land.
The famine libel, which accuses Israel of intentionally causing suffering in Gaza, is another modern adaptation of the blood libel. While it is true that Gaza faces a dire humanitarian crisis, exacerbated by Hamas’s policies and actions, the accusation that Israel is deliberately causing famine is a gross misrepresentation of the situation. It is a simplification of the complex geopolitical realities that ignores the role of Palestinian terror groups in exacerbating the crisis. Once again, it presents Israel as an intentional villain, turning a humanitarian tragedy into a tool for demonisation.
These modern libels—genocide, colonisation, famine—are, in essence, the same venomous hatred as the original blood libel, dressed in modern language and terminology. They serve the same purpose: to demonise Jews, to delegitimise Israel, and to justify violence against Jews. These accusations are dangerous not only because they are factually baseless but also because they create a culture of intellectual dishonesty, erasing historical truths and substituting them with fallacies.
The perniciousness of these accusations cannot be overstated. They do more than incite hatred; they create a culture where lies become accepted, where intellectual distortions are used to shape political and social constructs. If left unchecked, they risk not only perpetuating antisemitism but also entrenching a "cult of libels" that could eventually outcast not just Jews but any group deemed undesirable. These myths, if allowed to endure, will become entrenched within cultures and ideologies, creating a climate in which falsehoods become accepted truths, and violence becomes justified in the name of political struggle.
To combat these modern iterations of the blood libel, we must address each accusation separately, dissecting the lies and exposing the intellectual dishonesty behind them. We must reclaim the language of truth and justice, ensuring that terms like genocide, colonialism, and famine are used correctly, and that they are not hijacked by those who seek to distort reality. It is only by doing so that we can dismantle the false narratives that seek to isolate, demonise, and harm Jews and Israel.
The modern blood libels are not just attacks on Israel or the Jewish people; they are attacks on truth itself. The only way to ensure that these falsehoods do not become entrenched in our global discourse is to confront them head-on, with clarity, historical context, and intellectual integrity. By doing so, we can protect the future from the dangers of these age-old lies and ensure that they never again find a place in our conversation or in our world.
By Catherine Perez-Shakdam - Executive Director We Believe In Israel
