Haaretz
Adar 7, 5767
MKs on Monday demanded that the state
examine ways in which it could prosecute Professor Ariel Toaff, who wrote
book "Pasque di Sangue" [Passovers of Blood], which discusses the possible
facts behind 15th century European blood libels against
Jews.
Speaking at a discussion of the book and its ramifications
held at the Knesset Education Committee, MK Marina Solodkin (Kadima) said
the thought "there are valid reasons to prosecute the author of the book,"
and called to "put him to trial over historical truth and the Jewish
people's reputation."
MK Arieh Eldad (National Union), who
initiated the discussion, said that Toaff "has made himself an accomplice
to modern blood libels." Eldad added that the state must ensure that for
such publications, "the punishment will exceed the benefit."
Most
of the discussion's participants used the meeting to attack the "new
historians" who criticize Israel policy throughout its existence ? this
despite the fact that Toaff does not address Israel's policy at all in his
book.
Eldad said, "Toaff was possibly jealous of modern historians
who publish modern blood libels against the State of
Israel."
Solodkin said that when she reads research published by
the "modern historians,"he finds in them "many lies similar to the false
history taught in the Soviet Union."
Toaff to retract claim that
Jews killed Christians for their blood
Toaff, who 10 days ago
ordered a halt to the distribution of his controversial book about the use
of human blood by Jewish communities in the Middle Ages, plans to clarify
his positions in a scientific journal, stressing that Jews did not murder
Christian children for their blood.
In his book "Pasque di Sangue"
[Passovers of Blood], Toaff discusses at length the possibility that Jews
murdered Christian children to use their blood in religious rituals, and
argues that confessions to such acts extracted under torture should not be
dismissed.
Toaff uses as an example the blood libel of Trent in
1475, and suggests that Jews did murder the young child, Simon, who is at
the center of the affair.
He now wants to make it clear that the
Jews of Trent did not murder Simon or any other Christian children for
ritual purposes. Toaff will also make it clear that the blood of dead
Christians could not possibly have been used, whether in food, beverages
or for medicinal or magical purposes, because the blood traded by Jews and
Christians at the time came from living donors, not corpses. His
conclusion is that Jews could not possibly have murdered Christian
children for their blood.
Among the elements of his research,
Toaff wants to emphasize that there were extremist elements within the
Ashkenazi community in Germany that suffered at the hands of Christians
during the Crusades, and fled through the Alps to Italy during the 15th
century.
Toaff has been criticized for the book's title as well as
the image on its cover, an etching of the sacrifice of Isaac showing a
bearded man wielding a large knife above the body of a boy. Italian
readers who do not recognize the Biblical reference might think it is
"another case" of a Jew murdering a child. Toaff will specify in his
article that the book's title and cover were chosen without his input and
over his protests.
Toaff, who teaches Medieval and Renaissance
History at Bar-Ilan University and whose father is a former chief rabbi of
Rome, has been criticized by Jewish and non-Jewish historians for his
book. Fellow academics have called his research methodologically flawed to
the point of being "an insult to intelligence." Not a single historian has
come to his defense.
As a result of the public uproar caused by
the book's publication, Toaff decided to suspend its distribution as well
as any new printings, and to donate his profits from the 3,000 copies
already sold to the Anti-Defamation League. BIU President Prof. Moshe
Kaveh summoned Toaff for a private talk last week, after which the
university issued a press announcement in which it "strongly condemns and
repudiates what is seemingly implied by Toaff's book and by reports in the
media concerning its contents."
The Knesset Education, Culture and
Sport Committee is scheduled to discuss the book this morning. University
history teachers and representatives from the Education Ministry, Bar
Ilan, Yad Vashem and the ADL, as well as Toaff himself, were invited to
the session, which was initiated by MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union).