The VISA ad that appears on Egypt's El Kibar. Photo: Screenshot.

Credit card giant VISA Inc. on Friday distanced itself from Egypt’s El Kebar after the monthly magazine published a lengthy article on Monday presenting myths of the Jewish ‘blood libel’ – that human blood is a key ingredient of Passover matzah – on its website that prominently features VISA advertising.

Nehmat Baradhy, a VISA spokesperson in Egypt, told The Algemeiner that the ad “was not placed by Visa, nor do we directly advertise in this magazine.”

Baradhy said, “VISA condemns intolerance of any kind and is working to resolve this quickly.”

The ad features a VISA campaign for the World Cup. Baradhy said,“VISA provides marketing materials and use of its logo to its partners who wish to market VISA-branded products. We are investigating whether this is another parties’ advertisement making use of our brand and will address accordingly.”

The article, ‘The Jewish Bloodsuckers On Passover,’ by Egyptian journalist Firnas Hafzi, was translated on Thursday by MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, and tries to tie the 1840 Damascus blood libel to vampire stories written and produced by Jews to confuse the world about these crimes that may have been the cause behind thousands of unsolved missing persons cases.

The monthly magazine was founded last year after the fall of Cairo’s Muslim Brotherhood government, MEMRI said.

MEMRI also highlighted a similar article, ‘The Bloodsucking Jews Kill Children And Offer Them Up As A Sacrifice,’ on Egyptian website Cairodar.com, described as the “educational portal” of Egyptian daily Al-Yawm Al-Sabi.

Blogger Elder of Ziyon, who flagged the MEMRI translation on Thursday, noted that the El Kebar author, Hafzi, claims to be an expert on Hebrew who also writes about fashion, beauty and health.

One commenter on the Elder of Ziyon blog pointed out the obvious fact ignored by the persistent ‘blood libel’ myth:

“Given that kashrut forbids eating food with blood in it and that using anything but flour and water renders matzah unfit for Passover, there are already 2 reasons why this is completely impossible,” said Zvi. “Good luck to ’em.”