A crude, anonymous leaflet accusing “young Israeli mercenaries” of introducing and spreading AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) in Western Europe and the rest of the world, is being widely distributed among French high school students.
But there is more serious concern over a pamphlet issued by the respected “French League Against Sexually Transmissible Diseases” which implies that Jews are somehow responsible for the fatal ailment for which no cure has yet been found.
The pamphlet claims that Kaposi’s sarcoma, one of the earliest symptoms of AIDS, is an affliction of elderly Jewish patients. While the latter are not accused of spreading AIDS, the inference has been deplored by civil rights organizations.
The tracts appearing in high schools are clearly anti-Semitic in intent. Some handwritten, others badly typed, they are signed by “The Anti-AIDS Committee.” The students are urged to “pass on the word.”
They accuse Israeli “mercenaries working for Mobutu” of having contracted the disease and infected young French women tourists visiting Israel. The reference is apparently to Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire.
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