Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein and ZOA Chairman Mark Levenson, Esq. released the following statement:

In Israel, the coronavirus has resulted in approximately 13,000 confirmed cases and over 140 Israelis dying, and has locked down the entire country.  Yet, Israel has generously been sending enormous amounts of medical and other humanitarian supplies to their sworn enemies the terrorist dictatorship Palestinian Authority (PA) and Gaza (including huge quantities of testing kits, PPE and sanitizer); training PA and Gazan Arab medical personnel; allowing PA workers to remain in Israel to avoid the risks of travel; and cooperating in every way possible to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the PA and Gaza.  During a typical recent week (April 4), Israel transferred to Gaza 1,779 truckloads of goods, 81 tanks of fuel, 464 tons of medical supplies, 333 tons of agricultural products, 11,376 tons of food, 26,448 tons of building supplies, and 14,055 of miscellaneous goods.  

Even the Arab press such as Al Arabiya and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) have praised Israel’s cooperative efforts.  

Israel’s extraordinary kindness and generosity has been responded to by top PA/PLO officials and Hamas spouting the most vicious antisemitic libels imaginable, to incite hatred and violence against the Jewish people and the State. ZOA urges bi-partisan government officials and non-governmental organizations throughout the U.S. and the world to join ZOA in strongly condemning these vicious antisemitic libels.  Here are a few examples of this horrendous evil defamation:

• PA government spokesman Ibrahim Milhem smeared Israel as an “agent of the coronavirus,” and falsely said that Israel was using the virus to “persecute Palestinians” and that Israel is obstructing the PA’s work to prevent the spread of the virus in “east Jerusalem.”

• The PA’s official newspaper Al-Hayat al-Jadida printed a cartoon showing an Israeli soldier at an Israeli settlement (community) shooting coronavirus bullets at Palestinians.

• The PA’s official newspaper also printed cartoons and op-eds depicting Israel as the coronavirus (equating Israel to the coronavirus) and as “the most dangerous human virus known to man.”  (See Palestine Media Watch report.)  

• The PA’s official newspaper also falsely accused Israel of deliberately withholding disinfectants, and causing Palestinian prisoners to be “on the brink of a holocaust.”  (Id.)

• The PA/PLO is also publishing vicious cartoons, videos, op-eds and poems falsely accusing Israel of deliberately attacking supposed jailed and chained Palestinian children with coronavirus particles.  (See PMW report.)

• The PA/PLO official newspaper also falsely accused “occupation soldiers” (Israelis) and “settlers” (Israelis) of spreading the coronavirus by deliberately spitting on Palestinian cars and the door handles of Palestinian homes and “everywhere” in Palestinian towns; and by running their hands over ATM machines and property in Palestinian towns.  (PMW)

• As ZOA previously discussed, PA Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh falsely accused Israeli soldiers of the ugly blood libel of deliberately spreading coronavirus to Palestinians.  (See “ZOA to UN: Condemn PA Prime Minister Falsely Accusing IDF of Deliberately Spreading Coronavirus,” Apr. 1, 2020.)