Palestinian Writers: The Coronavirus Is A Biological Weapon Employed By U.S., Israel Against Their Enemies

The coronavirus outbreak has been accompanied by the circulation of many conspiracy theories about the origin of the virus, which were published, inter alia, in the Arab media and especially in the Palestinian media.[1] While Palestinian Authority (PA) government spokesman Ibrahim Milhem said that the PA is taking measures against the virus in coordination and collaboration with Israel,[2] some in the Palestinian media accused Israel and the U.S. of spreading the coronavirus in the world for various reasons: in order to weaken China and Iran, to help Trump's reelection campaign and/or to facilitate Israel's takeover of the region.

The following are excerpts from three such articles: 

Cartoon in PA daily: The coronavirus in the form of an Israeli tank pursuing a Palestinian carrying an infant (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 16, 2020)

Writer In Palestinian Al-Quds Daily: The Coronavirus – A Biological Weapon Employed By U.S., Israel Against China, Iran

According to Rasem 'Abidat, an activist of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and a columnist for the Palestinian daily Al-Quds, based in East Jerusalem, the coronavirus is a biological weapon that the U.S. and Israel decided to employ against China and Iran after failing to harm them by conventional means.  He wrote: "As part of the era of globalization and barbaric capitalism, which considers nothing but its own interests and profits and is willing to objectify people and trample them, a heated conflict is currently raging between the U.S. – the emblem of barbaric capitalism and monopolizing cartels… [cartels] whose role is to preserve its interests and global economic dominance – and China, which, as a rising economic [player], aspires to become the world's leading economic superpower within the next ten years, and [thus] poses a serious threat to the American economy and interests. The U.S. tried to stop China's momentum by imposing tariffs on Chinese imports, but China prevented this by responding with similar sanctions… Hence, the intelligence circles, the tycoons and the mafia of the large American military and commercial monopolies had to seek a new way to defeat the Chinese economy…   

"Iran is another permanent source of concern for the U.S., because, despite America's withdrawal from the deal on Iran's nuclear program, and despite the economic sanctions on Iran, which are unprecedented in human history… the pressures and siege only increased Iran's determination and its adherence to its positions, and enhanced its power and regional influence, with the support of allies such as Syria, the Lebanese Hizbullah, the Iraqi Al-Hashd Al-Sha'bi, the Houthis in Yemen and the Palestinian resistance forces. This harms America's interests and plans in the region, which are based on… dismembering and reconfiguring its countries along religious and sectarian lines, so as to make Israel the regional leader and ensure its [continued] survival. 

"Faced with these dangers – an American loss of global military and economic hegemony and a threat to Israel's existence – Israel and the U.S. had no choice… but to resort to biological weapons, for the economic solutions and military options were unable to halt China's advance and its economic takeover of the world. The sanctions on Iran likewise failed to prevent its consolidation as a regional power. This begs the question: Did the U.S. and Israel choose the option of [waging] biological warfare by spreading the coronavirus, which can deliver a decisive blow to China and Iran, on the assumption that this would lead to China's economic retreat and collapse and also undermine Iran while destabilizing its domestic economy and security, enabling to defeat it from within?..."[3]  

Palestinian Journalist: The American Elite Is Exploiting Corona To Reprogram The Global Economy For The Benefit Of The U.S.

'Abd Al-Muwati Al-Sadeq, who writes on the Palestinian Amad website, affiliated with the camp of Muhammad Dahlan, said that the deep state that controls the U.S. is using the virus as a biological weapon to reprogram the world economy, neutralize its economic rival China, and destroy the economies of the other world countries. He wrote: "First, let me say that I am convinced that the coronavirus is a dangerous epidemic that may endanger humanity if it spreads and cannot be controlled. [Furthermore], I am one of the people who believe in the conspiracy theory and are convinced that there is a Deep State controlling most of the events in the world. Even if we assume, for the sake of argument, that this cursed virus was not manufactured in American labs, I am sure that the Deep State that controls the U.S. made the most of its appearance, in order to wage a vicious war against the economies of the world, especially those of China, Iran, Russia and Europe, so as to reprogram the world economy, remove the Chinese Dragon from the arena of economic competition, and destroy the economies of the rest of the countries…

"The best proof of this is the media's inflation [of the epidemic], which is meant to sow fear by reporting on the spread of the virus and to cause most countries to take measures that increase the panic, [all] in compliance with the instructions of the World Health Organization, which is itself part of the Deep State. These measures have caused the states that were targeted [by this plot] to lose billions of dollars. It is a known fact that the medical reports and statistics show that the death rate from this virus is much lower than that of other epidemics, both viral and non-viral. For example, according to international reports, the number of people who die of hunger [in the world] is 28,000 a day."[4]

Article On Palestinian Website: The Mossad, CIA Are Spreading The Virus To Benefit Israel, President Trump

As’ad Al-Zouni, a Jordanian journalist of Palestinian origin who frequently writes antisemitic and conspiratorial articles,[5]  wrote on the Palestinian news website Dunya Al-Watan that the Jews and the CIA are responsible for spreading the virus: "[The emergence of] the coronavirus, which is spreading throughout the world… and which appeared in China the very same day the contractor President Trump signed a trade agreement with this giant country, cannot be regarded as a completely random event. This is especially since the American media machine, which is directed by the Zionists, treats the whole affair as a deal. Perhaps the spread of the [virus] in 46 American states happened after the contractor Trump displayed indifference to the situation and told the Americans: 'Don't worry, it's not serious, it will blow over.'

"This virus is surely an outcome of the Jews' concealed hatred for the entire world, and its spread in the U.S. is meant to demonstrate this and to serve as a weapon for the contractor Trump in the upcoming election, so as to ensure his reelection in return for the [favors] he bestowed upon the colony of Israel, the Khazar, Zionist, Jewish terrorist [entity]. Chief of [these favors] were the Deal of the Century, [and measures and statements regarding] Jerusalem, the Golan and the settlements. When the Jews ignited the conflagration of World War I, they won the Balfour Declaration, and when they started the conflagration of World War II, they won the establishment of their Khazar colony in Palestine. [Now] they want to start the conflagration of a third [world] war, in order to declare the establishment of the greater Jewish kingdom of Israel – and here we are, living in an atmosphere of a third world war, in which the military and political horizons of the regional and domestic conflicts are sealed, while the economic stagnation grows worse by the day due to rising prices and the political stagnation.  

"Not long ago, the Jews tried to ignite a war between Iran and the U.S. by causing severe tension in the Gulf, which, in one of its forms, reached the point of assassinating the commander of the [Qods Force] in [Iran's] Islamic Revolutionary Guards Force, Qassem Soleimani. This was preceded by several other clashes that almost started [World] War III, but the rationality of the decision-makers in Iran and the U.S. prevented this. Following this failure, the Israeli Mossad, in collaboration with the CIA, sent the coronavirus to China, to mitigate the Americans' anger with Trump and prevent it from causing him to lose the [upcoming presidential elections]… I reveal no secret when I say that the virus was spread in Italy as an act of revenge against it, for recently signing trade agreements and understandings with China…"[6]