Status: 09.08.2021 12:17 p.m.
Experts urgently warn against playing down conspiracy myths. An investigation commissioned by the AJC documents how anti-Semitic legends were spread during the corona pandemic.
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) warns against underestimating the participants in corona demonstrations and the protests themselves. The director of the AJC Berlin Ramer Institute, Remko Leemhuis, writes in a study on conspiracy myths commissioned by the AJC: “Undoubtedly, some of the conspiracy myths expressed at these demonstrations were so grotesque that they made the viewer smile rather than worry . ”
However, the assassins in Halle and Hanau, for example, would have attached such stories, which were already circulated on the Internet before the pandemic.
Between March 17, 2020 and March 17, 2021, the Federal Association of Research and Information Centers Antisemitism (Rias), which carried out the study, recorded 561 anti-Semitic incidents related to Corona. 57.7 percent were anti-Semitic statements at demos and meetings. 22.8 percent of the incidents happened online.
“Despite the absence of direct incidents of violence, these incidents are often face-to-face situations with specific victims,” the study says. The police crime statistics show 225 anti-Semitically motivated crimes in the context of corona protests.
The fact that in addition to right-wing extremists also people outside this spectrum took part in demonstrations against Corona measures and “did not interfere with the obvious anti-Semitism or even shared it” underlines that hostility towards Jews is a problem for society as a whole and cannot be reduced to “anti-democratic currents” , writes Leemhuis.
He recalled that state measures to contain the pandemic were not understood as “necessary regulations for health protection”, but as a “conspiracy of an elite operating in secret that wanted to achieve financial or political goals”.
In the study, experts also examine the significance of the QAnon conspiracy narrative, which has meanwhile become of central importance. The question is discussed whether this is an example of a novel anti-Semitic conspiracy myth.
The research also gives advice on how to deal with people who believe in such legends. This includes taking time for discussions, staying calm and checking sources. In addition, one should ask questions in order to get an insight into the thinking of the other person.