| Screenshot from video accusing Abdelmajid Taboun of being Jewish |
In Algeria, university professor Issa Bin Aggoun has accused former Prime Minister Abdelmajid Taboun of really being Jewish whose real first name was Benjamin.
Taboun who announced his candidacy for the December 12 presidential election. It is a time honored tradition that Arabs accuse their political opponents of being secret Jews.
However, Taboun is a popular name, and other Tabouns have filed a lawsuit against Bin Aggoun for his sullying their good names by claiming that the Taboun family members are really crypto-Jews.
Human rights activist Hassan Bouras denounced the accusation as"slander," saying that while the government is corrupt and he is no fan of Taboun, calling him Jewish is not a principled way to defeat him politically.
A video with over 12,000 views in 12 hours shows Taboun's face juxtaposed with various images of Orthodox Jews to incite hate.
Not one Arabic-language commentator I could find has said that it is not a slander to call someone Jewish.
The antisemitism behind these accusations is blindingly obvious, but is rarely called out in the West.