Iranian Website Spreads Fake News That Israel Does Medical Tests On Prisoners
Image by Anya Berkut/iStock
(JTA) BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — An Iranian news portal in Latin America has published an article claiming that Israel uses Palestinian prisoners for “new medical trials.”
Despite citing no evidence for the claim, the HispanTV report Wednesday has spread to outlets across Latin America, including the El Ciudadano monthly in Chile and the website of an association of Cuban jurists. It was published on Uruguay’s La Republica website but taken down Friday after a reader complained.
“This fake news crosses all limits of journalistic ethics,” said Ariel Gelblum, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s regional representative in Buenos Aires.
The Argentine site Infobae first reported the Wiesenthal Center’s complaint.
“HispanTV is for the Iranian regime to influence Latin America, through the presence of Hezbollah, its terrorist arm,” Shimon Samuels, the director of international relations for the Wiesenthal Center, said in a statement. “The charge of blood libel was used against Jews since the Middle Ages. Its use by Tehran is the crudest form of anti-Semitism.”
HispanTV, which is operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, launched in 2011. In 2014, Iran announced plans to expand its media influence in Latin America.
“Iran’s strong and rapidly growing ties with Latin America have raised eyebrows in the U.S. and its Western allies since Tehran and Latin nations have forged an alliance against the imperialist and colonialist powers and are striving hard to reinvigorate their relations with the other independent countries which pursue a line of policy independent from the U.S.,” the Iranian Fars News agency said.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
