The history of propaganda against the Jewish people is long and multi-faceted. Surprisingly, throughout the course of human history, the propaganda against Jews and Israel have followed the same format and themes. Many of the modern arguments and posts against Israel, and the Jewish people can be traced back to leaflets and cartoons published by the Soviet Union, which were used to convince the world that Israel had become the oppressor against the local Palestinian Arab populations. Many of the propaganda pieces against Jewish people have been based around themes of oppression against the working class, Jews contributing to the spread of communism, or that Jews are inspiring violence against non-Jews.
Libels against Jewish people can be traced all the way to ancient times. The most famous libel against us is the ‘blood libel’, where antisemites claimed Jews use the blood of babies to bathe or wash themselves, or the blood of Christian babies as an ingredient for their matzah (which goes against the laws of Kosher), or that Jews poisoned the wells to spread disease. These libels became particularly popular during the Middle Ages. The lie about Jews poisoning wells exploded after the Black Death because people could not explain the cause of the catastrophic pandemic. They went for an easy scapegoat, and consequently, thousands of Jews were massacred or burned alive. However, much of this propaganda that was printed and circulated would not have been widely used until the late 18th to early 19th centuries.
In the early 20th century, the Nazi arty party was gaining support in Germany. By 1933, it gained power, and through successful propaganda campaigns, it convinced many of its followers that Judaism was the root of many problems, including communism, poverty, and the lack of German strength. Hitler used the fact that many Jews were Bolsheviks or German revolutionaries, generalizing all of them to be untrustworthy communists. He also used the stereotype that Jews were greedy business owners, to perpetuate the antisemitic trope that the Jews were bourgeois exploiters.
One of the most famous German antisemitic cartoons, depicting a Jewish parasitic creature, with a dollar-sign and hammer-and-sickle as pupils. The dollar-sign probably being a symbol for greed and capitalism, and the hammer-and-sickle being the symbol for communism. The text at the top left inside the Star of David states: “You shall devour all the nations of the Earth.”
This propaganda piece, written in Russian, was distributed by Germans, stating: “Red Army Soldier, you are going to ‘free’ peoples? First free yourself of your oppressors!”
After Nazi Germany was defeated in 1945, the Soviet Union became the main Eastern European overlord, and more importantly for this article, the main spreader of antisemitism and anti-Zionist propaganda. Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union after Lenin, had a lifelong mistrust of Jews rooted in antisemitism, claiming the community is based in “rootless cosmopolitanism,” referring to their lack of a nation state, and supposed quality of living off the backbones of others (a common antisemitic trope). He infamously purged much of the Communist Party in 1938, which included many of the first Bolsheviks, many of which were Jewish. Stalin accused nine doctors (seven of whom, Jewish) of murdering some of Stalin’s associates, and initiating a plot to kill him personally in 1951. This culminated in the arrest of thousands of doctors (majority Jewish) in the infamous Doctor’s Plot.
This Soviet cartoon shows a representation of a Jew, (implied to be a capitalist or businessowner), wearing an extravagant top hat, in the shape of an octopus, with the Star of David extending into tentacles. The words in each tentacle translate to ‘Terror, Aggression, Provocation, Adventures, Anti-sovietism, Anticommunism.”
Stalin’s claims were later confirmed to have been false. In 1948, when Israel declared independence, the USSR actively supported Israel, believing it could become a communist state. However, due to various disagreements, possibly including Stalin’s refusal to allow Jewish emigration, and the deepening Israeli ties with the US, the Soviet Union began to aid the Arab nations opposed to Israel instead. One of the Soviets’ greatest weapons was their propaganda machine (specifically their many cartoons and comics circulated throughout, but particularly in the Arab World).
Even after Stalin’s death, the Soviet Union initiated an active KGB operation known as Operation SIG. Operation SIG was the codename for the USSR’s attempt to shift public opinion against Israel and Zionism through various means, including the distribution of propaganda. This did not stop with a direct campaign against Israel but corresponded with libels against Jews, including those popularized by ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’ with the Soviets actively referring to classic antisemitic tropes, like the idea that Jews control international banking systems to spread disinformation and social disorder for their own benefit. The Soviets encouraged the lie that Israel was solely a puppet for American imperialism in the Middle East, and claimed that Jews had no loyalty to any country other than Israel and were untrustworthy citizens. Many of the cartoons also showed an adamant obsession of comparing Jews, and the IDF in particular, to Nazis, in order to unite other people to a common enemy under the guise of compassion and political correctness.
Soviet Cartoon depicting a Jewish man in a military uniform, with an axe dripping blood. The text in the bottom left states: “In the image and likeness,” a quotation from the book of Genesis. It is used to illustrate a comparison between the Jew and Hitler.
After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the responsibility of creating and spreading propaganda were Arab countries, like Qatar, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, or the SJP, Muslim Brotherhood and other chapters. Almost all use the exact same repeated and tired tropes that the KGB employed for their campaigns. Israel is called a fascist, apartheid-enforcing, terrorist nation, and the Jewish people are labeled as bloodthirsty, immoral, greedy, and ugly creatures, responsible for the spread of imperialism, growing economic inequality, and discriminatory policies across the world. People now face no consequences for blatantly antisemitic behavior, such as showing a Star of David being thrown into the garbage because it is considered ‘anti-Zionism,’ not antisemitism.
Papers from Qatar, Iran, or Palestinian groups feature stereotypes of Jews committing crimes against humanity with a gleeful smile. They also spread pamphlets and cartoons of Arabs and other groups ‘cleansing’ the world of Judaism.
This cartoon, published in Qatar’s Al-Watan from 2010, depicts a stereotypical Jew holding a rifle and machete, with tentacles forming the text “Terror State” in Arabic.
Remarkably, people continue to fall for these same deceptive traps, becoming convinced that the annihilation of the Jewish state is righteous, and that Jews in general, are responsible for all the horrors of the World. All over social media and newspapers, there are consistent posts and articles comparing Jews to Nazis, calling Jews ruthless conquerors, and calling Israel a terrorist state. Many also spread the stereotype of Jews liking only money, and using that to spread lies on how Jews are the epitome of greedy corporatism and capitalism, a sentiment repeated by both Nazi Germany and the USSR.
Suddenly, we see why antisemitism was so easy to spread. Reducing an entire group of people into false and hateful stereotypes is an easy way for political leaders to explain their own failures. Not only have the formulas not changed, but the images have remained the same after centuries. Propaganda in general takes advantage of truths, in this case being that Israel has fought against Arab countries, including on the offensive, committed crimes against innocent people, or that many Jews have become successful entrepreneurs or businessmen. It then exaggerates these truths (or lies) to an insane degree, motivating violence and bigotry against the Jewish people.
