CNN revives medieval blood libel with ‘disrespectful’ Holocaust imagery
CNN has reversed its opposition to making “disrespectful” Holocaust comparisons as the news outlet helps revive a racist blood libel from medieval times.
Last year, CNN decried all Holocaust comparisons during a segment attacking those who compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.
“For the record, it is profoundly disrespectful to the memories of survivors and the suffering of those who were killed to equate the Holocaust to anything,” said CNN reporter Pamela Brown in January 2022. “But that does not stop mostly Republican lawmakers and public figures from trying to compare what is going on right now to this horrible time in human history.”
Brown slammed Children’s Health Defense Founder Robert Kennedy, Jr. for publicly remarking that even Holocaust victims like Anne Frank were able to hide or escape from their tormentors, while the unvaccinated under the Biden administration were not. She also attacked Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) for comparing the demonization and segregation of the unvaccinated to the Nazi Party’s demonization and segregation of Jews.
But CNN has signaled it now endorses Holocaust comparisons, provided they compare Jews to Nazis — the very definition of antisemitism, according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
In January, CNN reporter Abeer Salman wrote a puff piece on Michael Rozanov, a far-Left Israeli artist who regularly depicts Jews as Nazis for what he claims is poor treatment of Muslims in Israel. One of Rozanov’s claims, for example, is that Israel maintaining border control is “dehumanizing” to Muslims.
Rozanov has drawn Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich performing the Nazi salute while wearing a red armband featuring the Star of David in place of a swastika.
In another cartoon, he drew former Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked handing out yellow “Jude” stars to Ukrainian refugees.
In yet another, he drew a Knesset member holding a can of Zyklon B, the gas used by the Nazis to kill Jews en masse.
Rozanov has also revived the blood libel, an accusation from medieval times that Jews use the blood of Christian children to bake their Passover matzahs. In one cartoon, the Israeli artist shows dead Muslims crushed to death between two matzahs, with their blood pouring out. In another, he depicts a Jewish family celebrating the Passover seder while surrounded by the blood of Muslims.
CNN linked to Rozanov’s work and waxed lyrical about the antisemite.
“An artist who uses different media – film and animation, illustration and comics – to address social and political issues, as well as sexuality and gender, Mysh came to Israel as a teenager from Latvia in 1993 and served in its army for three years,” wrote Salman, going on to praise Rozanov for falsely claiming that Israel is “robbing five million people more of the same basic rights”.
CNN did not respond to a Frontline News inquiry about the news outlet’s new position on Holocaust comparisons.
“A story of a cartoonist lampooning a controversial politician can of course be an interesting and newsworthy item,” commented the Committee for Accurate Middle East Reporting & Analysis (CAMERA). “However, publishing a puff piece on Mysh, including a cartoon that so closely echoes the same antisemitic themes found in his other work, adds yet another example of CNN’s lengthy record of biased reporting and unchallenged platforming of antisemitism."
