CIJR | Canadian Institute for Jewish Research
L'institut Canadien de Recherches sur le Judaisme

Analysis

Waving Dead Babies in the Faces of Jews Is Blood Libel

Thousands march in London pro-Palestinian rally | SOURCE:  FMT | 
Creator: Alberto Pezzali 
Credit: AP
Thousands march in London pro-Palestinian rally | SOURCE: FMT | Creator: Alberto Pezzali Credit: AP

 

Brendan O’Neill

National Post, May 13, 2025

“We are witnessing nothing less than the revenge of Jew hate, and it is the deadliest poison in the well of our civilization.”

They’re now waving fake dead babies in Jews’ faces.

This sick taunt took place in Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex in England last month. It’s a town with a large Jewish population, so naturally the keffiyeh mob made a beeline for it.

And this time the Israelophobic irritants brought with them their grimmest paraphernalia yet: dolls wrapped in bloodied shrouds to symbolize the kids who’ve died in the war in Gaza.

“Stop killing babies!,” they hollered as families walked home from synagogue following Sabbath prayers.

The protesters’ faces were flushed red with fury as they shoved their blood-spattered babes towards the startled Jews.

Of all the stunts executed by Israel-haters since Hamas’s pogrom of October 7, this surely ranks as one of the vilest.

Accusing Jews of spilling the blood of innocents is a calumny that stretches back centuries. It is a foundational lie of Jew hatred.

And here it was again, on the streets of Essex, in 2025. Seeing the keffiyeh-draped loons dangle red-stained shrouds at Orthodox Jews, like matadors waving their red cloth to tease the bull, I felt nauseous.

In the words of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, it was a “despicable” display with a “chilling echo of medieval blood libels”.

England has the dubious honour of being the birthplace of that libel. In Norwich, in 1144, a boy called William was found stabbed to death. And the Jews of Norwich were blamed, without so much as a sliver of evidence. A lie was born, and it spread like a pox through Medieval Europe.

Now it’s back, with added melodrama. Today, the pitchfork mob doesn’t only howl statements which imply that Jews kill children — they also parade gory dolls to drive home their delirious bigotry.

It is deeply shaming that nearly 900 years after the invention of this sick slander, England’s Jews once more find themselves accosted by mobs accusing them of lusting after the blood of the guiltless. ...SOURCE

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