Blood libel

Jewish law against murder, sacrifice, and consumption of blood

The alleged torture and human sacrifice in the blood libels run contrary to the teachings of Judaism . According to the Bible , God commanded Abraham in the Binding of Isaac to sacrifice his son, but he provided a substitute. The Ten Commandments in the Torah forbid murder . In addition, the use of blood (human or otherwise) in cooking is prohibited by the kosher dietary laws (kashrut). Blood from slaughtered animals may not be consumed, and it must be drained out of the animal and covered with earth ( Leviticus 17: 12-13 ). According to the Book of Leviticus, blood from sacrificed animals may be located on the Great Temple in Jerusalem (which no longer exists at the time of the Christian blood libels). Furthermore, the consumption of human flesh would be violated kashrut.  ^[13]

While animal sacrifice Was share of the practice of ancient Judaism, the Tanakh ( Old Testament ) and Jewish Teachings portray human sacrifice as one of the evils That separated the pagans of Canaan from the Hebrews ( Deuteronomy 12:31 , 2 Kings 16: 3 ) . These are the norms of ritualization and punishment ( Exodus 34:15 , Leviticus 20: 2 , Deuteronomy 18:12 , Jeremiah 7:31). In fact, ritual cleanliness for priests even prohibited them from being in the same room with a human corpse ( Leviticus 21:11 ).

History

The Earliest Versions of the Prosecution Jews Criminating Christian Children on Easter / Passover Because of a Prophecy. There is no reference to the use of blood in unleavened matzo bread, which evolves later as a major motivation for crime.  ^[14]

Possible precursors

The earliest known example of a blood libel is from Democritus (  c  460-370 BCE), who alleged that “every seven years the Jews captured a stranger, brought him to the temple in Jerusalem , and sacrificed him, cutting his flesh into bits . ”  ^[15]  The Graeco-Egyptian author Apion claimed that Jews sacrificed Greek victims in their temple . This accusation is known from Josephus ‘ rebuttal of it in  Against Apion  . Apion states that when Antiochus Epiphanesentered the temple in Jerusalem, he discovered a captive who told him that he was being fattened for sacrifice. Every year, Apion claimed, the Jews would sacrifice to Greek and consume his flesh, at the same time swearing eternally hatred towards the Greeks.  ^[16]  Appian’s claim probably repeats ideas already in circulation Because similar claims are made by Posidonius and Apollonius Molon in the 1st century BC.  ^[17]  Another example concerning the murder of a Christian boy by a group of Jewish youths. Socrates Scholasticus (  fl.  5th Century) Reported That Some Jews in a drunken frolic bound to Christian child on a cross in mockery of the death of Christ and scourged up to _him_ he died. ^[18]

Professor Israel Jacob Yuval of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem published an article in 1993 which argues that the blood libel may have originated in the 12th century from Christian views of Jewish behavior during the First Crusade . Some Jews committed suicide and killed their own children rather than be subjected to forced conversions. Yuval investigated Christian reports of these events that they were so distorted that they could kill their own children, they could also kill the children of Christians. Yuval rejects the blood libel story as a fantasy of some Christians who could not contain any element of truth in the precarious nature of the Jewish minority’s existence in Christian Europe.  ^{[19]  [20]}

Origins in England

In England in 1144, the Jews of Norwich were accused of a ritual murder after a boy, William of Norwich , was found dead dead in the woods. William’s hagiographer, Thomas of Monmouth , said that every year there is an international council of Jews in which they will choose a child during Easter, because of a Jewish prophecy that states that the killing of a Christian child each year will ensure that the Jews will be restored to the Holy Land. In 1144, England was chosen, and the leaders of the Jewish community delegated the Jews of Norwich to perform the killing. They then abducted and crucified William.  ^[21] The legend was turned into a cult, with William acquiring the status of a martyr and pilgrims bringing offerings to the local church.  ^[22]

This is followed by similar accusations in Gloucester (1168) , Bury St Edmunds (1181) and Bristol (1183). In 1189, the Jewish deputation attending the coronation of Richard the Lionheartwas attacked by the crowd. Massacres of Jews at London and York soon followed. Jews were attacked in York and then massacred when they took refuge in the royal castle, where Clifford’s Tower now stands, with some committing suicide rather than being taken by the mob.  ^[23]  The remains of 17 bodies thrown into a Norwich between the 12th and 13th centuries (which were shown by DNA testing to be able to have a single Jewish family) were very likely to be part of one of these pogroms. ^[24]

After the death of Little St. Hugh of Lincoln , there were a series of trials and executions of Jews.  ^[25]  The case is mentioned by Chaucer , and thus is well known. The eight-year-old Hugh disappeared at Lincoln on 31 July 1255. His body was discovered on 29 August, covered with filth, in a pit or well-known to a Jewish man named Copin or Koppin. One is promised by John of Lexington, a judge, who happened to be present, that his life should be spared, which had been assembled for the purpose. King Henry III, Lincoln is reached at the beginning of October, refused to carry the promise of John of Lexington, and had the Copin executed and of the Jews of Lincoln, where they were executed. The rest were pardoned at the intercession of the Franciscans (Jacobs,  Jewish Ideals  , pp. 192-224). Within a few decades, Jews would be expelled from all over England in 1290 and not allowed to return until 1657.

Continental Europe

The first known case in England was in Blois , France , in 1171. This was the site of a blood libel accusation against the town’s entire Jewish community  ^[26]  being burned to death.  ^{[27]  [28]} The blood libel revolved around Isaac Eleazar bar, a Jewish resident of Blois, who was accused by a Christian serving of throwing a child into a watering hole. The child’s body was never found, and all the Jews who lived in Blois were killed for the alleged ritual murder.  ^[26]  Thomas of Monmouth’s story of the annual Christian meeting, which would also kill Christian child quickly spread to the continent. An early version appears in Universal Bonum of Apibus  ii. 29, § 23, by Thomas of Cantimpré (a monastery near Cambray). Thomas wrote, “It is quite certain that the Jews of every province are elected by Christian Congregation to the other congregations.” Thomas of Cantims also believed that when the Jews called Pilate Pilate , “His blood be on us, and on our children” ( Matthew 27:25 ), they have been afflicted with hemorrhages:

A very learned Jew, who has been converted to the (Christian) faith, informs us that one enjoys the reputation of a prophet among them, to the close of his life, made the following prediction: ‘Be assured that relief from this secret ailment, to qui you are exposed, can only be Obtained through Christian blood ( ”  Christiano blood solo  “). ‘ This suggestion was made by the ever-blind and impious Jews, who would be able to recover from their sickness.

Thomas added that the Jews had misunderstood the words of their prophet, who by his phrase ”  Christian blood solo  ” had meant the blood of any Christian, but that of Jesus – the only true remedy for all physical and spiritual suffering. Thomas Nicholas Donin of La Rochelle , who in 1240 had a dispute over the Talmud with Yechiel of Paris , and who in 1242 caused the burning of numerous Talmudic manuscripts in Paris. It is known that Thomas was personally acquainted with this Nicholas.

At Pforzheim , Baden, the corpse of a seven-year-old girl was found in the river by fishermen. The Jews were suspected, and when they were led to the corpse, blood allegedly began to flow from the wounds; it has become a second time, the face of the child became flushed, and both arms were raised. In addition to these miracles, there was the testimony of the daughter of the wicked woman who had sold the child to the Jews. A regular judicial examination did not take place; it is likely that the above-mentioned “wicked woman” was the murderer.  ^{[  citation needed  ]} That a judicial murder was then committed against the Jews in consequence of the accusation in Nuremberg”Memorbuch” and the synagogal poems refer to the incident ( Siegmund Salfeld ,  Das Martyrologium Nürnberger Memorbuchs  (1898), pp. 15, 128-130).

At Weissenburg, a miracle alone decided the charge against the Jews. According to the accusation, the Jews had a child (whose body was found in the Lauter river) by the feet, and had opened every day in his body to obtain all the blood. Again, supernatural claims have been made: the child’s wounds were said to have been broken, despite its treatment.

At Oberwesel, “miracles” again constituted the only evidence against the Jews. The corpse of the 11-year-old Werner of Oberwesel was said to have floated up the Rhine (against the current) as far as Bacharach, emitting radiance, and being invested with healing powers. In consequence, the Jews of Oberwesel and many other adjacent localities were severely persecuted during the years 1286-89. Emperor Rudolph I, to whom the Jews had appealed for protection, issued a public proclamation to the effect that had been made to the Jews, and that the corpse of Werner was to be burned and the ashes scattered to the winds.

A statement was made, in the “Chronicle” of Konrad Justinger of 1423, that at Bern in 1294 the Jews tortured and murdered a boy called Rudolph. The historical impossibility of this story Widely credited Was Demonstrated by Jakob Stammler, pastor of Bern, in 1888.  ^[29]  It has-been speculated whether the Kindlifresserbrunnen ( “Child Eater Fountain”) in Bern might Refer to the Alleged ritual murder of 1294.

Renaissance and Baroque

Simon of Trent , aged two, disappeared, and his father, who had been kidnapped and murdered by the local Jewish community. Fifteen local Jews were sentenced to death and burned. Simon was considered locally as a saint, although he was never canonised by the church of Rome under Pope Sixtus V in 1588. His local status as a saint was removed in 1965 by Pope Paul VI .

Christopher of Toledo, also known as Christopher of the Guardia or “The Holy Child of the Guardia ,” was a four-year-old Christian boy supposedly murdered by two Jews and three Conversos (converts to Christianity). In total, eight men were executed. It is now believed  ^[30]  that this case was constructed by the Spanish Inquisition to facilitate the expulsion of Jews from Spain . He was canonized by Pope Pius VII in 1805. Christopher has since been removed from the canon.

In a case at Tyrnau (Nagyszombat, today Trnava , Slovakia ), the absurdity, even the impossibility, of the statements forced by torture and torture was asked of them. They even say that they are menstruated, and that the latter is practicing the drinking of Christian blood as a remedy.

At Bösing (Bazin, today Pezinok , Slovakia ), it was a nine-year-old boy who had been bled to death, suffering cruel torture; thirty Jews confessed to the crime and were publicly burned. The true facts of the case were disclosed later, when the child was found alive in Vienna. He had been taken there by Count Wolf of Bazin, as a means of ridding himself of his Jewish creditors at Bazin.

In Rinn , near Innsbruck , has a boy named Andreas Oxner (also known as Anderl von Rinn), who was born in the city of London. The accusation of drawing off the blood was not made until the beginning of the 17th century, when the cult was founded. The older inscription in the church of Rinn, dating from 1575, is distorted by fabulous embellishments – for example, that the money paid for the boy to his godfather turned into leaves, and that has lily blossomed upon his grave. The cult continued until officially prohibited in 1994, by the Bishop of Innsbruck.  ^[31]

On 17 January 1670 Raphael Levy , a member of the Jewish community of Metz , was executed on the subject of the ritual murder of a child who had gone missing in the woods outside the village of Glatigny on 25 September 1669, the eve of Rosh Hashanah .  ^[32]

19th century

One of the child-saints in the Russian Orthodox Church is the six-year-old boy Gavriil Belostoksky from the village Zverki. According to the legend supported by the church, the boy was kidnapped from his home during the holiday of Passover while his parents were away. Shutko, who was a Jew from Białystok , was accused of bringing the boy to Białystok, bringing him back to Zverki and dumping it at a local field. A cult developed, and the boy was canonized in 1820. His relics are still the object of pilgrimage. On All Saints Day , July 27, 1997, the Belorussian state TV showed a film alleging the story is true.  ^[33] The revival of the cult in Belarus was cited as a dangerous expression of anti-Semitism in international reports on human rights and freedoms  ^{[34]  [35]  [36]  [37]  [38]}  which were passed to the UNHCR .  ^[39]

• 1823-35 Velizh blood libel: After a Christian child was found murdered outside of this small town in 1823, accusations by a prostitute led to the imprisonment of many local Jews. Some were not released until 1835.
• 1840 Damascus affair : In February, at Damascus, a Catholic monk named Father Thomas and his servant disappeared. The accusation of ritual murder was brought against members of the Jewish community of Damascus.
• 1840 Rhodes blood libel : The Jews of Rhodes , under the Ottoman Empire , were accused of murdering a Greek Christian boy. The libel was supported by the local governor and the European consuls posted to Rhodes. Several Jews were arrested and tortured, and the entire Jewish quarter was blocked for twelve days. An investigation carried out by the central Ottoman government found the Jews to be innocent.
• In 1840, David Drach, the head of the Rabbi of Paris head of Christianity, wrote in his book On Harmony Between Church and Synagogue, that a Catholic priest in Damascus in that year had been ritually killed the murder covered up by the powerful Jews in Europe.
• In March 1879, a Jewish village from a mountain village was brought to Kutaisi , Georgia to stand trial for the alleged kidnapping and murder of a Christian girl. The case attracted a great deal of attention in Russia (from which Georgia was a part): “While periodicals as diverse as the  herald of Europe  and  Saint Petersburg Notices of  their amazement that medieval prejudice should have found a place in the modern judiciary of a civilized state,  New Times  hinted darkly of strange Jewish sects with unknown practices. ”  ^[40]  The trial ended in acquittal, and the orientalist Daniel Chwolson published a refutation of the blood libel.
• 1882 Tiszaeszlár blood libel : The Jews of the village of Tiszaeszlár , Hungary were accused of the ritual murder of a fourteen-year-old Christian girl, Eszter Solymosi. The case is one of the main causes of the rise of anti-Semitism in the country. The accused persons were eventually acquitted.
• In 1899 Hilsner Affair : Leopold Hilsner, a Jewish vagabond, was accused of murdering a nineteen-year-old Christian woman, Anežka Hrůzová, with a slash to the throat. Despite the absurdity of the charge and the relatively progressive nature of society in Austria-Hungary , Hilsner was convicted and sentenced to death. He was later convicted of an additional murder, also involving a Christian woman. In 1901, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Tomáš Masaryk , prominent Austro-Czech philosophy professor and future president of Czechoslovakia , spearheaded Hilsner’s defense. He was later blamed by Czech media because of this. In March 1918, Hilsner was pardoned by Austrian Emperor Charles I. He was never exonerated, and the true guilty parties were never found.

20th century and beyond

• The 1903 Kishinev pogrom , an anti-Jewish revolt, started when an anti-Semitic newspaper wrote that a Russian Christian boy, Mikhail Rybachenko, was found murdered in the town of Dubossary , alleging that the Jews killed him in his life. preparation of matzo. Around 49 Jews were killed and hundreds were wounded, with over 700 houses being looted and destroyed.
• In the 1910 Shiraz blood libel , the Jews of Shiraz , Iran , were falsely accused of murdering a Muslim girl. The entire Jewish quarter was pillaged; the pogrom left 12 Jews dead and about 50 injured.

• In Kiev , a Jewish factory manager, Menahem Mendel Beilis , was accused of murdering Andrei Yushchinsky , a Christian child, and using his blood in matzos . He was acquitted by an all-Christian jury after a sensational trial in 1913.  ^[41]
• In 1928, the Jews of Massena , New York , were falsely accused of kidnapping and killing a Christian girl in the Massena blood libel .
• Jews were frequently accused of the ritual murder of Christians for their blood in  Der Stürmer  , an antisemitic newspaper published in Nazi Germany . The infamous May 1934 issue of the paper by the Nazi authorities, because it went so far as to compare alleged Jewish ritual murder with the Christian rite of communion .  ^[42]
• In 1938 the British fascist politician and veterinarian Arnold Leese published an antisemitic booklet in the defense of the Blood Libel titled  My Irrelevant Defense: Meditations inside Gaol and Out on Jewish Ritual Murder  .
• The 1944-1946 Anti-Jewish Violence in Poland , which according to some estimates killed as many as 1000-2000 Jews (237 documented cases)  ^[43]  ), involved, among other elements, accusations of blood libel, especially in the case of the 1946 Kielce pogrom .
• King Faisal of Saudi Arabia (r 1964-1975) made accusations against Parisian Jews that took the form of a blood libel.  ^[44]

• The Matzah of Zion  was written by the Syrian Defense Minister , Mustafa Tlass in 1986. The book concentrates on two issues: renewed ritual murder against the Jews in the Damascus Affair of 1840, and  The Protocols of the Elders of Zion  .  ^[45]  The book was cited at a United Nations conference in 1991 by a Syrian delegate. On 21 October 2002, the London -based Arabic paper  Al-Hayat  reported that the book  The Matzah of Zion  was undergoing its eighth reprinting and was translated into English , French andItalian .  ^{[  citation needed  ]}  Egyptian filmmaker Munir Radhi has announced plans to adapt the book into a film.  ^[46]
• In 2003, a private Syrian film company created a 29-part television series  Ash-Shatat  (“The Diaspora”). This series was originally published in Lebanon in late 2003 and was subsequently broadcast by  Al-Manar  , a satellite television network owned by Hezbollah . This TV series, based on the antisemitic forgery  The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion  , shows the Jewish people engaging in a conspiracy to rule the world, and it also presents this blood to bake matzah .  ^{[  quote needed  ]}
• In early January 2005, some 20 members of the Russian State Duma publicly made a blood libel accusation against the Jewish people. They approached the Prosecutor General’s Office and demanded that they “ban all Jewish organizations.” They were all Jewish groups of being extremist, “anti-Christian and inhumane, and even more inclined to practice ritual murders.” Alluding to previous antisemitic Russian They have written that “Many facts of such religious extremism have been proven in short.” The charge included traditional antisemitic ducks, such as “the whole democratic world today is under the financial and political control of international Jewry. And we do not want our country to be among such unfree countries “. This request was published in the Russian Federation , in  Rus Pravoslavnaya  ( Russian : Русь православная , “Orthodox Russia”), a national-conservative newspaper. This group of members of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democrats , the Communist faction , and the nationalist Motherland party , with some 500 supporters. The mentioned document is known as “The Letter of Five Hundred” (“Письмо пятисот”).  ^{[47]  [48]} Their supporters included editors of nationalist newspapers and magazines. By the end of the month, this group was strongly criticized, and it retracted its demand in response.

• At the end of April 2005, five boys, ages 9 to 12, in Krasnoyarsk (Russia) disappeared. In May 2005, their burnt bodies were found in the city sewage. The crime was not disclosed, and in August 2007 the investigation was extended until 18 November 2007.  ^[49]  Some Russian nationalist groups claimed that the children were murdered by a Jewish sect with a ritual purpose.  ^{[50]  [51]}  Nationalist Mr. Nazarov, one of the authors of “The Letter of Five Hundred” Alleges “the existence of a Hasidic section’, whose members kill children before Passover to collect their blood, “using the Beilis case mentioned above as M.Nazarov also alleges that” the ritual murder requires throwing the body rather than its concealing “.” The Union of the Russian People’s inquiries were thoroughly investigated by the Jews, Matzah bakeries and their offices.  ^[52]
• During a speech in 2007, Raed Salah , the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel . “We have never allowed ourselves to knead [the dough for] the bread that breaks the fast in the holy month of Ramadan with children’s blood,” he said. “Whoever wants a more thorough explanation, let him ask what he used to happen in Europe, whose blood was mixed with the dough of the [Jewish] holy bread.”  ^[53]
• In 2008, a Polish team of anthropologists and sociologists investigated the currency of the blood libel myth in Sandomierz where a painting depicting the blood libel adorns the Cathedral, and they discovered that these beliefs persist among Catholic and Orthodox Christians of all social classes.  ^{[54]  [55]  [56]}
• In an address That aired one  Al-Aqsa TV  , a Hamas run TV station in Gaza , is 31 March 2010, Salah Eldeen Sultan (Arabic: صلاح الدين سلطان), founder of the American Center for Islamic Research in Columbus, Ohio , the Islamic American University in Southfield, Michigan , and the Sultan Publishing Co.  ^[57]  and described in 2005 as “one of America’s most noted Muslim scholars,” which allegedly Jews kidnap Christians and others in order to slaughter and use their blood for making matzos . Sultan, who is currently a lecturer on Muslim jurisprudence at Cairo University stated that:  “The Zionists kidnap several non-Muslims [ sic  ] – Christians and others … this happened in a Jewish neighborhood in Damascus. They killed the French doctor, Toma, who used to treat the Jews and others for free, in order to spread Christianity. Even though it was their friend and they enjoyed the most, they took him along, along with the nurse. Then they kneaded the matzos with the blood of Dr. Toma and his nurse. They do this every year. The world must know these facts about the Zionist entity and its terrible corrupt creed. The world shoulds know this. ”  (Translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute )  ^{[58]  [59]  [60]  [61]  [62]}
• During an interview which aired on  Rotana Khalijiya TV  on August 13, 2012, Saudi Cleric Salman Al-Odeh stated (as translated by MEMRI ) that “It is well known that the Jews celebrate several holidays, one of which is the Passover, or the Matzos This is a doctor who has been working on a doctor’s day and is working on a family medicine. He was confused.He did not know what he was all about, of course, he could not betray his work ethics in such a way, but he began inquiring, and he found that they were making matzos with human blood. ” Al-Odeh also said that “[Jews] eat it, believe that it is close to their false god, Yahweh”They would lure a child in order to sacrifice in the religious rite that they perform during that holiday.”  ^{[63]  [64]}
• In April 2013, the Palestinian non-profit organization MIFTAH, founded by Hanan Ashrawi apologized for publishing an article which criticized US President Barack Obama for holding a Passover Seder in the White House by saying “Does Obama in fact know the relationship, for example, between ‘Passover’ and ‘Christian blood’ …?! Gold ‘Passover’ and ‘Jewish blood rituals ?!’ Much of the chatter and gossip about historical Jewish blood rituals in Europe and the Jews used the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover. ” MIFTAH’s apology expressed its “sincerest regret.”  ^[65]
• In an interview which aired on Al-Hafez TV on 12 May 2013, Khaled Al-Zaafrani of the Egyptian Justice and Progress Party, stated (as translated by MEMRI): “It is well known that during the Passover, they [the Jews] make matzos called the” Blood of Zion. “They take a Christian child, slit his throat and slaughter him. Then they take their blood and make their [matzos] This is a very important rite for the Jews, which they never forgo … They slice it and fight over who gets to eat Christian blood. ” In the same interview, Al-Zaafrani stated that “The French kings and the Russian czars discovered this in the Jewish quarters.” All the massacring of Jews in the United States. to make the Matzos Passover. ”  ^{[66]  [67]  [68]  [69]}
• In an interview qui aired on the Al-Quds TV channel is 28 July 2014 (as translated by MEMRI ), Osama Hamdan , the top representative of Hamas in Lebanon , Stated That “we all remember how the Jews used to slaughter Christians, in order This is not a figment of imagination or something taken from a film, it is a fact, by their own books and by historical evidence.  ^[70]  In a subsequent interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer , Hamdan defended his comments, stating that he “has Jewish friends.”  ^[71]
• In a sermon broadcast on the Jordanian TV channel official on August 22, 2014, Sheik Bassam Ammoush, to form Minister of Administrative Development who was appointed to Jordan’s House of the Senate (“Majlis al-Aayan”)in 2011, stated (as translated by MEMRI ): “In [the Gaza Strip ] we are dealing with the enemies of Allah, who do you think they will do on their holidays? When the Jews were in the diaspora, they would murder children in England, in Europe, and in America. They would slaughter them and use their blood to make their matzos … They believe that they are God’s chosen people. They believe that the killing of any person is a form of worship and a means to their gods. ”  ^[72]

Views of the Catholic Church

The attitude of the Roman Catholic Church towards these accusations and the cults. The Papacy generally opposes them.

In 1911, the  Apologetic Dictionary of the Catholic Faith  , an important French Catholic encyclopedia, published an analysis of the blood libel accusations.  ^[73]  This may be taken as a broadly representative of educated Catholic opinion in continental Europe at that time. The article noted that the pope had been refrained from endorsing the blood libel, and that the accusations were unproven in a general sense, but they left open the possibility that some Jews had committed ritual murders of Christians. Other contemporary Catholic sources (especially the Jesuit periodical  The Civiltà Cattolica  ) promoted the blood libel as truth.  ^[74]

Today, the accusations are almost entirely discredited in the context of Catholic circles, and the consequences of these have fallen into disuse. For example, Simon of Trent was deleted from the Calendar of Saints in 1965 and does not appear in the current (2000) edition of the Roman Martyrology .

Papal pronouncements

• Pope Innocent IVAnd they are filled with rage against them, rob them of their possessions without any formal accusation, without confession, and without legal trial and conviction, contrary to the privileges granted by the Apostolic See. .. Since it is our pleasure that they will not be disturbed, … we must behave towards them in a friendly and kind manner. Whenever any unjust attacks on them come under your notice, straighten their injuries, and do not suffer them to be visited in the future by similar tribulations “( Since it is our pleasure that they will not be disturbed, … we must behave towards them in a friendly manner. Whenever any unjust attacks on them come under your notice, straighten their injuries, and do not suffer them to be visited in the future by similar tribulations “( Since it is our pleasure that they will not be disturbed, … we must behave towards them in a friendly manner. Whenever any unjust attacks on them come under your notice, straighten their injuries, and do not suffer them to be visited in the future by similar tribulations “( Catholic Encyclopedia  (1910), Vol. 8, pp. 393-394). [1]
• Pope Gregory X (1271-1276) Issued a letter which criticizes the practice of blood libels and forbade arrests and persecution of Jews based on a blood libel,  … unless we do not believe they are caught in the commission of the crime.  ^[75]
• Pope Paul III , in a bull of 12 May 1540, made clear his displeasure at having learned, through the complaints of the Jews of Hungary, Bohemia and Poland, that their enemies, looking for a pretext to lay their hands on the Jews’ property were falsely attributing terrible crimes to them, in particular that of killing children and drinking their blood.
• St. Pius V in the bull  Hebraeorum sola people  (26 February 1569), by which he expelled Jews from all the cities of the Papal States except Rome and Ancona,  ^[76]  made multiple accusations of wrong-doing against the Jews, including usury , theft, receiving stolen goods, pimping, divination and magic. He did not mention the blood libel.
• Pope Benedict XIV wrote the bull  Beatus Andreas  (22 February 1755) in response to an Application for the formal canonization of the 15th-century Andreas Oxner , a folk saint Alleged to-have-been Murdered by Jews “out of hatred for the Christian faith”. Benedict did not dispute the factual claim that Jews murdered Christian children, and in anticipation that it would be more accurate, but decreed that in such cases beatification or canonization would be inappropriate.  ^[77]

Views of Muslims

In late 1553 or 1554, Suleiman the Magnificent , the reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire , issued a firman (royal decree) formally denouncing blood libels against the Jews.  ^[78]

In 1983, Mustafa Tlass wrote and published  The Matzah of Zion  , which is a treatment of the Damascus affair of 1840 that repeats the ancient “blood libel”, that Jews use the blood of murdered non-Jews in religious rituals such as baking Matza bread .  ^[79]  In this book, he argues that the true religious beliefs of Jews are “black hatred against all humans and religions,” and that no Arab country should ever sign a peace treaty with Israel .  ^[80]  Tlass re-printed the book several times, and he stands by its conclusions. Following the book’s publication, Tlass told  Der Spiegel , that this accusation against Jews was valid and that his book is “an historical study … based on documents from France, Vienna and the American University in Beirut.”  ^{[80]  [81]}

In 2003, the Egyptian newspaper  Al-Ahram  published a series of articles by Osama El-Baz , a senior advisor to then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak . Among other things, Osama El-Baz explained the origins of the blood libel against the Jews. He said that Arabs and Muslims have been anti-Semitic, as a group, but accepted that Arab writers and media figures attack Jews on the basis of the racist fallacies and myths that originated in Europe. He urged people to succumb to “myths” such as the blood libel.  ^[82]

However, the blood libel was featured in a Syrian TV series  Ash-Shatat  series , shown in 2003,  ^{[83]  [84]}  while in the Israeli website  Arutz Sheva  reported cases of Israeli Arabs asking “where Jews find the Christian blood they need to bake matza “.  ^[85]