Weaponising COVID-19: Far-Right Antisemitism in the United Kingdom and United States   [open pdf - 0B]

From the Introduction: "Far-right extremists have historically blamed Jewish people for a range of international problems and national crises, and the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] global pandemic is no different. There has been an explosion of antisemitic conspiracy theories online, populating social media channels as mainstream news coverage on the new coronavirus gathered pace. [...] [T]his report provides a concise overview of how the COVID-19 global pandemic is being exploited by far-right organisations in the UK and US in order to generate antisemitic violence and hatred. It also seeks to develop a critical understanding of how new instances of social crisis (such as the COVID-19 global pandemic) are being integrated into existing conspiratorial frameworks used by far-right organisations. As well as identifying areas of convergence between British and American far-right organisations in their antisemitic exploitation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report also pinpoints potential instances of transatlantic collaboration on this front. The report focuses on antisemitic coronavirus-related material produced, uploaded, and shared by two far-right organisations - the British National Socialist Movement (BNSM) and the US based National Socialist Movement (NSM)."