The Jews of Russia are accused of having murdered a Christian child for ritual use. The blood libel against the Jews, which cropped up from time to time in various countries for centuries, has long been established as a myth invented by anti-Semites.

The Jewish reaction to blood libels appears less articulated than we might have expected, because although it denied any Jewish culpability, it internalized some of the narratives which nourished the ritual murder accusations.

The Israeli Cabinet, meeting in emergency session, issued a statement tonight calling allegations of Israeli responsibility a “blood libel.”

Charges “Blood Libel.” Mr. Sharon, the architect of Israel's war in Lebanon and now Minister of Industry and Commerce, has charged that he was libeled in 1983 by a Time article suggesting that he condoned, if not directly encouraged, the September 1982 massacre by Christian Phalangists of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps near Beirut.

[ Ariel Sharon: ] “Time published a blood libel about me. How the hell do you settle a matter like this? A blood libel you fight!”

The Israeli government has accused the BBC of perpetuating a “modern blood libel” in its reporting of the catastrophic explosion at al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza.

In Washington, the conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan refined the analogy between Jews and their killers, and wrote that those who call for sensitivity to the Jews in this matter are guilty of “a blood libel” against Catholicism.

What I called blood libel was the charge that Pope Pius XII, and my church, were moral accessories to mass murder.

[ John Seigenthaler to Oliver Stone re JFK: ] “Is there any regret on your part for what I consider to be a blood libel on Lyndon Johnson for that accusation of murder?”

The fantasies of blood libel that Bosnian Serbs retailed about Bosnian Muslims were the fantasies that Rhinelanders had centuries earlier retailed about the Jews they had murdered.

Listen to Florida Democrat Peter Deutsch last night on Crossfire: “Let me just talk a little bit about... the worst statements I have ever heard probably in my life about anything. I mean, almost a blood libel by the Republicans towards Al Gore, saying that he was trying to stop men and women in uniform that are serving this country from voting.” .... You don't just toss around charges that the possible next president of the United States is conspiring to take the vote away from American soldiers overseas. Given the volatility of the moment and the divisions already existing in American society it really is almost like a blood libel. Almost.

Bush administration allies exploited the former Congressman's predatory history to spread the grotesque canard that homosexuality is a direct path to pedophilia. It's the kind of blood libel that in another era was spread about Jews.

This week, Mr. Fiedler accused an op-ed contributor for El Nuevo Herald of “blood libel” for suggesting that a Herald reporter who broke the Martí story had ties to Cuba's spy agency. In an editor's note, Mr. Castelló called the spy claim unfounded.

The phrase “blood libel” dates back to antiquity. […] In more recent times, it has been appropriated by some to mean simply a virulent lie stated about someone.

Sarah Palin today accused her opponents of manufacturing a “blood libel” by suggesting her rhetoric and campaign tactics had anything to do with the Arizona shootings. […] Palin's bizarre use of language is sure to provoke further controversy.

Blood libel

Meaning

Noun

Synonyms