Israel’s Interior Ministry denied a claim by an Israeli concert organizer that singer Elton John was asked to sign a pledge of loyalty to Israel in order to get a visa.
The tip/rumor/innuendo in question involves personal information, as yet unconfirmed and unpublished, about a member of Mayor James Hahn\’s family. Faced with resistance from reporters, management at the Daily News has since dropped the subject. The L.A. Weekly\’s editor, apparently, still wants the story. Editors at the Los Angeles Times, for its part, elected to let the matter lie; no reporters\’ rebellion was required.
Last September, in Khartoum, Sudan, a rumor surfaced that Westerners were going about town, shaking the hands of Muslims, and thereby causing the Muslim\’s penises to disappear. Really. This was reported in the Arabic language Al-Quds Al-Arabi and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (memri.org).\n\nThe rumor spread, mass hysteria ensued, hospital rooms filled with nervous men and police arrested some 40 foreigners on suspicion of sorcery. Only when the health minister publicly discredited the claims did quiet return to Khartoum, but not before a Sudanese columnist blamed the sorcery on \”an imperialist Zionist agent that was sent to prevent our people from procreating and multiplying.\”
In what may be another case of an e-mail rumor run amok, the Anti-Defamation League is laying to rest allegations that Wal-Mart and Sam\’s Club are selling globes nationwide that denote \”Palestine\” but not Israel.
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