Jerusalem Post
The picture, entitled “Independence Day,” depicts celebration of Israel’s independence day by Israeli soldiers, who raise their blood-filled glasses in toast.
An image of Israel Defense Forces soldiers drinking blood was shared on Instagram by anti-Zionist NGO Jewish Voice for Peace last Thursday, leading to accusations by Jewish social media users that the NGO engaged in the classic antisemitic narrative of the “blood libel.” The picture, entitled “Independence Day,” depicts celebration of Israel’s independence day by Israeli soldiers, who raise their blood-filled glasses in toast. The appendage of a construction vehicle holds up a string of blue and white decorations, which is being cut by a Palestinian boy with scissors. The ground is soaked in blood and strewn with the bodies of Palestinians and uprooted trees. “Truly disgusting. Jewish Voice for Peace posted a cartoon of two Jews drinking blood. In addition to being extremist and anti-Israel, JVP can add antisemitic to its resume.” Aviva Klompas, former head of speechwriting at Israel’s mission to the UN “Israeli soldiers drinking blood?,” said one commenter on the social media post. “That is taken directly from antisemitic blood libel stereotypes.” The sentiment that JVP had shared content that evoked the blood libel was echoed by others in the comments on post, which shared 10 pieces of art on “Palestinian resistance, Israeli violence, and American complicity by” UK and Bahrain-based artist Sara Qaed. The illustrations shared by JVP covered several topics, including the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed in a Jenin firefight between IDF soldiers and Palestinian gunmen. An investigation is ongoing into her death, but is widely considered to so far to be inconclusive as to how Abu Akleh was hit, and who fired the bullet. Another image entitled “Ukraine Israel” shows IDF soldiers stealing homes from Palestinians to provide them to Ukrainian refugees. In March, JVP accused Israel of “pitting refugees against each other” by “settling Jewish Ukrainian refugees on land it illegally occupies” while preventing “seven million Palestinian refugees from returning.”
