Modern Manifestations of the Ancient Libel

In 1960, a seemingly innocuous atheistic article titled "Allaha na da el erkin" ("Even Without God the Road is Open") was published in the Dagestani town of Buynaksk. Written in the local newspaper "Kommunist," an organ of the CPSU city committee, the author "criticized religion."

However, that was not all. The author also alleged that Jews used the blood of Muslims for ritual purposes during the Passover holiday:

Jews believed, according to their religion, that drinking Muslim blood once a year would be beneficial. Consequently, some Jews purchased between 5 to 10 grams of Muslim blood, which they mixed with water in a large barrel and sold as water that had come into contact with the blood of a Muslim.

"I tried to assist them, to no avail"

Antisemitic sentiments rapidly spread throughout the Caucasus, where they were perceived as the official stance of the authorities. Mountain Jews demanded a retraction, initially at the municipal level. Meeting with no success, they sent a delegation first to Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, and subsequently to Moscow to request an audience with high-ranking state officials.

To help arrange such meetings, they approached Ilya Ehrenburg.

"In the autumn of 1960, four Mountain Jews unexpectedly visited me and indignantly recounted that an article criticizing various religions had appeared in a newspaper in the Buynaksk district. While denouncing Judaism, the author of the article asserted that devout Jews mixed a small amount of Muslim blood into drinking water. Admittedly, a retraction appeared in the newspaper two days later, and a month later the editor was dismissed for his 'political error'; however, the Mountain Jewish delegates who had arrived in Moscow demanded that the newspaper publish an article refuting the ancient libel—the ritual consumption of the blood of non-believers by Jews. I tried to reassure them and attempted (unsuccessfully) to assist them. They stayed in Moscow for a month, going everywhere they could; they possessed a fiery and resolute character. Having achieved nothing, they departed. Meanwhile, it emerged that the Buynaksk newspaper had been received in a neighboring country, and the ill-fated article was reprinted in several Western newspapers."

Ilya Ehrenburg, as was typical in his memoirs, is inaccurate regarding the details: the retraction occurred only after a genuine threat of civil unrest loomed in the Caucasus, and not before the Moscow authorities began suppressing the international scandal that erupted due to the publication of the "Kommunist" article in the West, which served as evidence of Jewish persecution in the USSR.

Following this, a letter was submitted to the Central Committee of the CPSU on behalf of prominent Mountain Jews. The letter refuted the notion of state antisemitism and countered the "slanderous campaign launched by reactionary circles in the USA." The appeal was signed by collective farmer, Hero of Socialist Labor, and Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the DASSR Gyulboor Davydova; writer Khizgil Avshalumov; Derbent locomotive depot engineer Khanuko Gadmilov; Dr. Girshun Babaev of the Buynaksk Municipal Hospital; writer Mishi Bakhshiev; and Shabotey Abramov, chairman of a Derbent collective farm.

Ultimately, the newspaper editor was dismissed, and reprimands were issued to the leadership of the Buynaksk CPSU city committee and several other officials. Nevertheless, the repercussions of the Dagestani events persisted in the Caucasus and Central Asia for a long time: "blood libels," though less publicized, were documented in Uzbekistan (Margilan and Tashkent in 1961–1962) and in Georgia (Tskhaltubo in 1963, Zestafoni in 1964, and Kutaisi in 1965).

Forging, Manipulation, and Outright Lies

More than half a century has passed since then, and one might expect humanity to have learned this lesson. However, the mechanism of the libel has not vanished; it has merely changed its rhetoric. Today, the same accusations directed against Jews are masked behind humanitarian slogans and framed as the "fight against genocide," "condemning colonialism," or "stopping racism." The only difference is that instead of the words "Jews are killing Muslims," it is now asserted that "Israel is committing crimes against humanity."

Various forms of libel are now detected across a wide range of public and professional spheres. Below are just a few manifestations:

In the cultural sphere: in September 2025, a festival in Flanders refused the participation of Israeli conductor Lahav Shani, justifying the decision by stating that he "represents Israel."

In academia: on the campus of City, University of London, a professor of economics and an IDF reserve officer was publicly branded a "terrorist" during a student protest and faced pressure due to his background and military service.

In the media: during the war in Gaza, several instances have been documented where footage or reports intended to discredit Israel proved to be fabrications, one-sided interpretations, or deliberate manipulations—yet despite retractions and proof of falsehood, they continued to circulate within the information space. For example, images captioned as "children dying of hunger in Gaza" spread widely on social media—when in reality, they were completely unrelated to Gaza or the current period, being a 2020 photograph of a Yemeni child suffering from cerebral palsy.

Similarly, numerous social media posts asserted that "nearly 400,000 Palestinians have gone missing" in the Gaza Strip, attributing this statistic to Harvard University. However, Harvard had never published any such data. Employing the authority of a prestigious university alongside a shocking figure without proper verification creates the false impression of mass disappearances caused by Israel.

A fabricated screenshot of a purported article from the Israeli newspaper The Times of Israel, bearing the headline "Protesters against genocide are antisemites," was circulated as evidence that Israeli media condemns protests. The publication, however, was a complete fake. Forging visual media content and employing a recognizable logo to legitimize a false accusation serves to further inflame anti-Israel sentiment among liberal Europeans.

More than 3,000 film industry professionals signed a petition to boycott Israeli cinema institutions, claiming that Israelis are "complicit in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people."

Politically Correct Antisemitism

The underlying formula has remained unchanged over the years: there is an accused nation to which a monstrous atrocity is attributed, and there is a morally self-cleansing accuser, ostensibly performing an act of justice. This is neither a debate nor constructive criticism; it is a ritual of moral self-justification achieved through the demonization of the other.

Modern variations of the ancient libel frequently originate from university lecture halls, human rights organizations, or parliaments, where antisemitism is cloaked in politically correct language. Yet the core remains the same: the denial of the right of Jews to a normal existence, to statehood, and to human empathy.

History demonstrates that whenever the world begins to speak of Jews as the source of planetary evil, it culminates not in the exposing of a myth, but in a new tragedy. Therefore, recalling the Buynaksk article of 1960 is not merely a historical reference, but a warning.

A libel, once uttered, outlives the era in which it was written.