FALSE: DO NOT SHARE
Claim:
COVID-19 is a bioweapon created by Israel, orchestrated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Answer:
False. COVID-19 is thought to have originated in wildlife and was not engineered in a lab.
FURTHER INFORMATION
A video on YouTube alleges that coronavirus is a bioweapon engineered by Israel, orchestrated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The video states that this is because “the people who want to kill 90% of the population and enslave the rest are the Zionists”.
This is false. COVID-19 is thought to originate from wildlife, and has not been engineered by humans in a laboratory. We have previously debunked similar claims: coronavirus is not a Chinese bioweapon, and it has not been engineered to include ‘HIV insertions’.
This false claim can be viewed in the context of rising antisemitic hate speech and conspiracy theories. Recent weeks have seen a surge in messaging that Israel and/or Jewish people are responsible for the coronavirus outbreak, as reported by the Anti-Defamation League. Researchers at the Kantor Center at Tel Aviv University have tracked a global rise of antisemitic hate speech in relation to COVID-19, Professor Dina Porat stating that ‘Although this report deals with antisemitism in 2019, we cannot disregard the implications of the Coronavirus crisis during 2020’.
Other false claims have suggested that Israel had no cases of coronavirus as they had developed a cure, which is clearly contradicted by the World Health Organization’s data, which reports that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Israel, as of 27 April 2020, is over 15,000.
SOURCES
Anti-Defamation League, ‘Coronavirus Crisis Elevates Antisemitic, Racist Tropes’
World Health Organization (WHO) – Coronavirus cases by country
Origins of Claim
FULL TEXT OF CLAIM
Video description: “What we’re seeing playing out with Corona Virus is a Bio-Weapon and there are indicators that a trail leads to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu!”
