Anti-Semitic and conspiracy broadcaster and Christian pastor Rick Wiles said on Wednesday that the coronavirus outbreak is spreading to synagogues, and is a punishment from God because Jews don’t follow Jesus.
“Stay out of those things, there’s a plague in them. God’s dealing with false religions,” he said on Wednesday night on TruNews, which he founded. “God’s dealing with people who oppose his son, Jesus Christ. He’s dealing with the forces of Antichrist. And there’s a plague moving upon the earth right now, and the people that are going into the synagogues are coming out of the synagogues with the virus.”
“It’s spreading in Israel through the synagogues,” he continued, before blaming the Jewish state’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Anti-Defamation League.
“Let me tell you Mr. Netanyahu, let me tell you ADL: God. God is spreading it in your synagogues. You’re under judgment because you oppose his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“This is classic anti-Semitism mixed with religious triumphalism. It is unsurprising coming from Pastor Rick Wiles, whose ‘news’ outlet is a primary source for outrageous anti-Semitic conspiracy theories,” ADL CEO and national director Jonathan Greenblatt told JNS. “As we note in our report ‘Antisemitism Uncovered,’ the belief that Jewish people are cursed goes back to the Middle Ages and the Inquisition. It is backward thinking and has no place in America in 2020.”
Wiles also claimed that the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States “started” earlier this month at the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, D.C.
While a number of people who attended the conference were later diagnosed with virus, both the first case and outbreak in the United States were reported in Washington state. The pandemic started in Wuhan, China.
Wiles has a history of making anti-Semitic remarks, including blaming the so-called “Jewish mafia” and “Jewish lobby” and calling Jews “deceivers” and “domestic enemies.”
In November, Wiles called the effort to impeach U.S. President Donald Trump a “Jew coup.”
TruNews was granted press credentials by the Trump administration to cover the World Economic Forum in January in Davos, Switzerland. Senators and the White House Correspondents’ Association, which consists of and represents reporters covering 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, have sought answers from the White House as to why the outlet was approved.