“Kill A Jew –
Go To Heaven”
A Study of the Palestinian Authority’s
Promotion of Genocide
By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
with PMW
Research Staff: Hila Ben Haim,
Dina
Lisniasnsky, Dror
Malelis, Ron Pichekhadze
Executive Summary
“It was always my wish to turn my body
into deadly shrapnel against the
Zionists and to knock on Heaven’s
doors with the skulls of Zionists.”
The
day after 21-year-old Palestinian terrorist Reem
Riyashi read these words for her farewell video, she murdered
four Israelis in a suicide terror attack. She, or those who wrote the
statement for her, believed that her act of murdering Israelis was enough
to assure her entry into Heaven.
·
This study will examine:
o
Why a Palestinian would
believe that the murder of Israelis and/or Jews is something that Islam
values and demands;
o
Whether this is being
taught by fringe groups in the Palestinian Authority (PA) or represents
official PA ideology.
·
Findings:
PMW
has found that the Palestinian Authority (PA) teaches an ideology of
virulent hatred of Jews and
·
July 2000
“The Hour [of Resurrection]
will not take place until you will fight the Jews and kill them”
Dr. Ahmed Yousuf Abu Halabiyah, member of
the Palestinian Sharia [Islamic religious
law] Rulings Council, and Rector of Advanced Studies, the Islamic University,
PA TV,
·
October 2000
“Kill them all... we won’t
leave a single Jew here.”
Young Girl, PA TV,
·
September 2004
“The Hour [of Resurrection]
will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims
kill them. The Muslims will kill the Jews, rejoice!”
Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris, Head of Association
for Memorizing the Quran, PA Ministry of Endowments
& Religious Affairs, PA TV,
·
January 2005
“…and the rock and the tree
will say: Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come
and kill him!”
Dr. Hassan
Khater, founder of Al Quds
Encyclopedia
PA TV,
Building A Case Against Jewish Existence
The
PA religious, political and educational leaders have systematically
built a case against Jewish existence, much as a prosecutor would build
a legal case in a court of law to demand a death sentence. And as their
expert witness, they bring God Himself.
The PA case against the Jews has three stages:
Stage 1 defines what characterizes
the Jew.
Stage 2 demonstrates how these
characteristics endanger the world.
Stage 3 instructs how to fight
back against the Jews.
Stage 1 Anti Semitism
Collective Labeling: The Jews’ nature is inherently evil
(*See
appendix for overview of Universal Racism- Anti Semitism scale)
The
foundation stage defines Jews and presents them as different from others,
possessing inherently evil traits. Jews are said to be treacherous,
corrupt, deceitful and unfaithful, as well as God’s enemies – cursed
descendants of monkeys and pigs. Educators, academics and politicians
distort and malign Jewish tradition as inherently evil, and link it
directly to the “treacherous behavior” of which they accuse Jews today.
Forgeries and fiction masquerading as history are used to document and
support the libel that Judaism is inherently racist and evil. Significantly,
these Jewish “attributes” and traditions are presented not as behavior
that can be improved, but as the unchangeable nature of Jews.
Stage 2 Anti-Semitism
Creating the Threat: The Jews are an existential danger to all humanity
The
second stage shows that these evil traits are not a private Jewish matter,
but have ramifications for the entire world. Driven by these immutable
traits and traditions, the Jews are planning and executing heinous crimes.
If unchecked, these crimes constitute a mortal danger, not only to all
Muslims and Arabs but to all of humanity. This threat is presented as
highly significant: Wars, conflicts and internal strife are all said
to be triggered by Jews. Indeed, the oppression Jews have suffered throughout
history is presented as the legitimate response of nations seeking revenge
because of the injury to them brought about by the Jews living among
them. The “Jewish evil” represents an existential threat – a danger
to all humanity, something that cannot be ignored.
Stage 3 Anti-Semitism
Eliminating the Threat
“The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until the Muslim kills the Jew.”
A
solid prosecution has been built: Jews represent a threat to all humanity.
Since this menace is a consequence of Jews’ evil nature and traditions
and is unchangeable, the sole solution is that Jews must be fought,
subjugated, killed and annihilated. Killing Jews is promoted as an act
of self-defense and self-preservation, necessary to save Muslims, Arabs
and all humanity. The PA calls as the expert witness God Himself, who
is said to have sent humanity a message through his Prophet Muhammad
that the killing and even the extermination of Jews is a necessary step
to bring the “Hour” – world redemption through resurrection. The killing
of Jews is thus absolved as an act of murder and justified as an act
of self-defense. Murder of Jews is elevated from the abhorrent to the
service of God and humanity.
This
three-tiered PA ideology demanding genocide is neither the strategy
of a fringe PA sect, nor the haphazard ramblings of private individuals
behind closed doors. Rather, the hatred of Jews is promoted by the religious,
political and academic elites, and taught through cultural, educational,
religious and even entertainment frameworks, all of which are under
the control and direction of the PA political leadership.
Sixty
years after the end of the Holocaust, it is chilling that PA society
is openly, repeatedly and unabashedly echoing many of the messages that
Nazi Germany systematically used to justify the need for the genocide
of Jews.
Stage 1 Anti Semitism
Collective Labeling:
·
The Jews’ nature is inherently evil
Collectively
labeling or defaming an ethnic group’s nature as inferior is the first
stage of racism and anti-Semitism. The PA teaches that the Jewish nature
has numerous malevolent, immoral and malicious character traits. To
make these claims convincing, the PA presents through its controlled
media a steady stream of religious figures, academics, political leaders,
and specialists to indicate that expert authorities from all fields
corroborate this assertion of an evil Jewish nature.
·
Religious Figures:
The following teachings by PA religious leaders were all
broadcast on official PA TV:
Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa Najem
“Allah described them [Jews]
in His Book, characterized by conceit, pride, arrogance, rampage, disloyalty
and treachery… deceit and cunning…”
PA TV,
Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris
“Every time Muhammad came
back from his raids, he would find treachery and betrayal by the Jews
of Medina, since treachery and betrayal are two character traits of
the Jews’ nature... that their descendants inherited from their ancestors
until today."
PA TV,
Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa Najem
“The Jews are Jews, and we
are forbidden to forget their character traits even for a moment, even
for a blink of an eye.”
PA TV,
·
Academic Authorities
A
PA psychologist explains on PA TV that the Jewish infant “nurses hatred”:
Psychologist Khader Abas
“Very important factors influenced
the Jewish personality, among them: The religious-legend idea, this
is foremost, and children’s upbringing. From the moment the child is
born, he nurses hatred against others, nurses
seclusion, nurses superiority…”
PA TV,
A
PA lecturer in the philosophy of education likewise presents the image
of Jewish children nursing hatred in the “milk.”
Dr. Muhammad Abu Daf
“I truly do not see the state
of the Israeli society as a state of confusion, but rather a natural
result of an education that was maintained by fundamentalist Jewish
upbringing to violence, hostility and racism... The sayings of the leaders
of the Hebrew state, and the actions of the soldiers are a natural behavior,
acquired by the Jewish upbringing... Thus distorting the figure of the
Arabs and Muslims, the Jewish child nurses hatred with [mother’s] milk
... we want a generation that recognizes and understands the structure
of the Jewish personality.”
PA TV,
·
Children
PA
children are taught disdain of Jews through children’s entertainment
programs, in which Jews are stigmatized with the same hateful labels.
Echoing the religious teaching that Jews are “deceitful and cunning,”
a program with a charming talking puppet teaches preschoolers: “You
can’t trust the Jews:”
Tarabisho [Talking puppet]
“I want to send a message
to the children and our viewers:
“Don’t stay in dangerous places, like places
under bombardment. Allow the rescue teams and civil defense and security
personnel to perform their duty.”
Child in studio
“All of us join Tarabisho, and say to everyone: Watch out! You can’t trust
the Jews, because they can strike us suddenly at any moment.”
PA TV,
·
Jews’ “treachery and disloyalty” taught in PA schools
This
presentation of Jews as having inherently negative character traits
was taught for years in the PA curriculum.
“One must beware of the Jews,
for they are treacherous
and disloyal.”
Islamic Education for Ninth
Grade, page 79
“Treachery and disloyalty
are character traits of the Jews and therefore one should beware of
them.”
Islamic Education for Ninth
Grade, page 87
These
books were based on Jordanian schoolbooks. Though the PA was notified
of this content in 1999, it refused an American offer at that time to
fund the reprinting of these books without this and other anti-Jewish
content.
·
Image of Jews as inherently negative in popular culture
The
depiction of Jews as possessors of inherently negative traits also appears
in popular entertainment, such as crossword puzzles in daily newspapers.
One
example: “Crossword Puzzle Clue: ‘Jewish character trait spelled backwards:’
“Solution:
’Treachery.’”
Al Quds,
·
Jews Cursed by God
PA
religious leaders confer on Jews the ultimate iniquity, that Jews are
said to be the cursed enemy of God. The evil nature of the Jews, therefore,
is not merely the conclusion of humankind, it is said to be God’s conclusion.
As the enemy of God, the Jews are, of course, the enemy of Muslims.
Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi,
“These Jews who angered Allah
and whom He cursed through the Prophets...”
PA TV,
Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa Najem
“Praise unto Allah, Who cursed
our enemies; curse upon curse up to Judgment Day. And He has cursed
them as well through the words of His prophets and emissaries...”
PA TV,
Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris
“Praise Allah, Who cursed
the non-believers among the People of the Book...”
PA TV,
·
Portrayal of Jews as Animals
In
three instances (Surahs 2, 5 and 7), the Koran
tells of Muhammad turning people into monkeys and/or pigs: “Those (Jews)
who incurred the curse of Allah and his Wrath, and those of whom (some)
He transformed into monkeys and swine.” (Surah
5:60) Another section of the Koran compares the Jews
to donkeys. PA leaders repeatedly dehumanize Jews by applying these
animal references to Jews:
Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa Najem
“... for
which Allah transformed them to monkeys and pigs...“
PA TV,
Dr. Mahmoud Mustafah
Najem
“Praise be to Allah, who has
cursed [the Jews], the brothers of monkeys and pigs.”
PA TV,
Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi
“We are waging this cruel
war with the brothers of the monkeys and pigs, the Jews and the sons
of
PA TV,
Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi
“For Allah was angry and called
them once monkeys, pigs and donkeys…”
PA TV,
·
PA schoolbooks:
PA
educators have chosen to include this donkey reference from the Koran
in the new PA schoolbooks:
“...Those [Jews] who were
charged with the Torah, but did not observe it, are like a donkey carrying
books...”
Reading the Koran,
This
depiction by PA leaders of Jews as animals is reflected in popular behavior
and language. At one anti-Israel march, PA demonstrators wrapped a donkey
in a Jewish prayer shawl, demonstrating the imagery they had been taught
of donkeys as Jews.
·
PA Daily Newspapers:
Writers
have used this animal imagery to slur Jews, as illustrated by this editorial
in the official PA daily:
“In the past the young
Al Hayat
Al Jadida,
·
PA Children:
Even
very young Palestinian children have incorporated this language into
their image of Jews. A 10-year-old girl on PA TV introduced her message
to Jews with the following racial slur:
“My name is
PA TV,
As
early as 1998 Jews were already being called Devil and Satan:
Abdul Muiz Al Satar,
Teacher of Religion
“They [Jews] are the descendants
of the Devil and the descendants of the Satan.”
PA TV,
Complementing
the verbal depiction of Jews as animals and Satan are visual demonization and dehumanization in the PA media. Note that
long before the terror war, the PA media was already publishing these
odious visual images of Jews. In 1999, approaching the end of the century,
the cartoon of the official PA daily captioned the sub-human dwarf Jew
as “the disease of the century.”
 |
 |
 |
| Al-Ayyam, March 27, 2004 | Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 28, 1999 | Al-Quds March 7, 2004 |
 |
 |
 |
| Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 31, 2004 | Al-Ayaam, Feb. 27, 2004 |
Al-Ayyam, Apr. 5, 2003 |
This
dehumanization of Jews plays a role in preparing PA society to be willing
to kill Jews (see Stage 3 below.) Animals are clearly inferior to humans,
and in many societies have no rights, are used for experiments and routinely
hunted.
·
Maligning Jewish Tradition
An
important component of the PA indoctrination to see Jews as evil is
to present Judaism as both an illegitimate religion and one that embraces
hateful teachings. Both of these defamations have been taught for years
in the PA. These hate teachings are echoed by children.
PA
academic and religious leaders publicly deny the existence of the Jewish
nation. Moreover, they argue that even as a religion Judaism is not
legitimate, since the original Hebrew Bible was distorted by the Jews.
Jirar Al Kidwa, Head of PA Public Library
“Judaism is not a religion
in the full sense of the word, and is not a nationality at all. Where
does this religion come from? The source of Judaism is the Mosaic Law
– Moses introduced the Mosaic Law, which is the continuity of the Islam
of Abraham. The Mosaic Law is a religion, which seems to be an Islamic
religion, and several studies which were published have found in the
Torah, when translated correctly, texts which prove that it is the continuation
of Islam. [The Jews] practice ritual customs that are not mentioned
in the original Torah... We know of two sects which maintain the ancient
customs – the Samaritans in
PA TV,
The
Neturei Karta, whom
the PA present as authentic Jews, are a tiny extremist anti-Israel sect,
who deny Israel’s right to exist based on their interpretation of Judaism.
The Neturei Karta have actively supported
the PA in its fight against
Abdul Muiz Al Satar,
Teacher of Religion
“They [the Jews] falsified
Allah’s words, and changed His religion and His laws. They were the
oppressors. This is a revolt against Allah and His path... In the [genuine]
Hebrew Bible that was revealed by Allah and his path... the genuine
Hebrew Bible, that was revealed by Allah, possess guidance and light,
justice and virtue, but the Jews changed it in the past, and change
it today, seriously. In today’s Hebrew Bible there is no
right guidance nor light.”
PA TV,
·
PA children incorporate delegitimization
of Judaism into their worldview:
Teenage Girl
“They falsely claim that the
Hebrew Bible is their religion, but we know that they falsified the
Hebrew Bible and set another constitution other than the divine one,
which was revealed in the Hebrew Bible and they twisted it as they wished.”
PA TV,
·
The
Beyond
the general attacks on the Hebrew Bible’s legitimacy, the PA maligns
specific traditions as well. The following hateful perversion of the
Jewish holiday of Passover in the official PA daily is just one example
of the PA’s defamation of Jewish traditions:
“The Jews until today keep
the rituals of Passover... from which they derive their attitude to
foreigners… [Let us] understand
these religious rituals and their significance in order to understand
the racist behavior of the Israelis against the Arabs. This holiday
has various meanings… Murdering foreigners is a Godly virtue that should
be emulated… There is nothing in history more horrible than the theft,
the greatest crime in history, that the Jews did the night of their
Exodus [from
Al Hayaa,
Jewish
religious symbols are likewise debased. While blaming
Text:
“The Israeli drug smuggling network”
Al
Hayat Al Jadida,
·
The Protocols of the Elders of
The PA not only distorts authentic Jewish traditions,
it presents fictitious libels as actual Jewish documents, and thereby
reinforces the case that Jewish tradition is evil. The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a text exposed many years ago as a
fraud perpetrated by Czarist intelligence agents, is routinely treated
by the PA as an authentic Jewish plan for world domination.
A
senior PA academic, speaking on television to the Chairman of the PA
Public Library, explained that
Dr. Riad Al Astal
“In these circumstances [of
European nationalism] what is known as the Zionist Renaissance grew
and the seeds of what is called The Protocols of the Elders of
PA TV,
An
official PA reference work cites the Protocols under the title, The
Jewish Danger:
“The 65th issue of The Shahids
(Martyrs) was recently published by the Political Guidance of the Border
Patrol. The issue includes many important political, economic and military
matters… In addition, there is a chapter about a research paper, entitled
The Jewish Danger: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
Al Hayat
Al Jadida,
·
The
portrayal of Israelis and Jews as inherently evil is so important to
the PA that their officials go to great lengths to reinterpret events
that contradict this image of the evil Jew, often explaining that humanitarian
acts by
Ahmad Nasser, Secretary of the Palestinian Legislative Council
"We see that
Interviewer: "This concept appears in The Protocols of the
Elders of Zion, that they [Jews] are superior and the rest are inferior.”
PA TV,
The
ultimate and irrefutable stamp of authority in a religious society,
such as the PA, is placed on this indictment of Jews’ evil nature. The
Prophet Muhammad himself is said to have sounded the alarm:
Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa Najem
“He [Muhammad] warned us about
the Jews, and about the Jews’ evil and the
Jews’ deceit... He clarified the character of the Jew... so we would
beware of them at every moment and at all times.”
PA TV,
Stage 2 Anti Semitism
Creating the Threat:
·
The Jews are an existential danger to all humanity
Because
the Jews are inherently evil and their traditions hateful and murderous,
the Jews are said to be planning and executing horrific crimes. These
crimes are presented as endangering all humanity, not just Muslims and
Arabs. Indeed, Jews are said to be responsible for all wars, conflicts,
financial crises and civil strife.
Zionism was a European Plot to be rid of the “Burden” of Jews:
Senior
PA academics present Jews as a threat to a stable society. A history
lecturer explained that Zionism was a European plot to be rid of the
Jews, because Jews were such a detriment to European society:
Riad Al
Astal, talking to Jirar
Al Kidwa, Chairman of PA Public Library, and Issam Sissalem, senior history professor, about Britain’s
support of Zionism:
“
This
depiction of Zionism as a European defense plan to be rid of the “burden”
of the Jews has been taught as history in the PA for years. In 1998,
the official PA daily presented an odious analogy comparing Hitler to
British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, who declared in
“The difference between Hitler
and Balfour was simple: the former [Hitler] did not have colonies to
send the Jews, so he destroyed them, whereas Balfour... [turned]
Al Hayat
Al Jadida,
PA Children
have accepted and embraced this teaching, expressing that “countries
of the world took part” in the creation of
Majda [teenager]
“Regarding the problem of
the Jewish presence, you’d agree that the Jewish presence in the land
of ’
PA TV,
·
Jews Control World Media:
The
Jews are said to be able to hide their evil from most of the world due
to their “repulsive control over the world media...”:
“The Jews were the object
of hatred and contempt everywhere, due to their control over most of
the economic resources …. The most prominent example for this is the
play The Merchant of Venice in which Shylock, the merchant, portrays
the image of the greedy, crafty Jew who is evil and loathsome... If
so, how did the Jews succeed in brainwashing the American and European
public opinion to change the image [of the Jew] to an understanding,
brave, bright, diligent and creative person, whom the world looks up
to? There is no escape from saying
that the success of the Jews was not incidental but rather a result
of long years of planning and the investment of enormous efforts in
order to achieve the repulsive control over the world media…”
Al Hayat
Al Jadida,
Where
did the Jews learn the necessity of controlling the media? From The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion, explains the PA daily:
“The Protocols of the Elders
of Zion did not ignore the importance of using propaganda to promote
the Zionist goals. In the second protocol is written: ’Through the newspapers
we will have the means to propel and to influence.’
In the twelfth protocol: "Our governments
will hold the reins of most of the newspapers, and through this plan
we will possess the primary power to turn to public opinion.”
Al Hayat
Al Jadida,
·
Jews responsible for all catastrophes on earth:
Religious
leaders teach that Jews are responsible for all catastrophes:
Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris
“Why did Allah change the
direction of prayer from Al Aqsa Mosque [in
PA TV,
·
Murder is part of Jewish nature and religion:
Jews
are said to be committing murder because it is part of their nature:
Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa Najem
“It is not
unusual for the Jews, nor uncharacteristic of their traits, or
their ancestry, or their wild behavior, what they are doing … slaughter
after slaughter, invasion after invasion this has been the custom of
the Jews throughout the generations and the ages.”
PA TV,
Not
only are Jews said to be a threat, but the Jewish religion is said to
promote murder of Arabs:
A
PA cabinet minister thus maligned the Jewish religion on PA TV:
Abd Al Aziz Shahin, PA
Minister of Supplies
“Since the 19th century the
Zionist mind has been built upon the killing of the Arab people....
in their religious schools, where they learn that they are the chosen
people of God and we are the others, we are considered the stage between
the Jew and the monkey. This is a basis of the Jewish religion, and
from this comes the killing of the Arab people in
PA TV,
Children
are likewise taught to see Judaism as a racist, murder-promoting religion.
Chairman of the PA public library, Dr. Jirar
al Kidwa, teaches young students on an educational TV broadcast
that the Talmud and the Hebrew Bible promote the murder of non-Jews:
Dr. Jirar Al Kidwa
“The commandments of their
Hebrew Bible or their Talmud say that we are Goyim, that is, non-Jews;
[they] view all non-Jews as barbarians or as their servants, void of
any human rights, and [one] may destroy them and may kill them.”
PA TV,
Children
are likewise taught through hate propaganda, such as this staged video
clip broadcast hundreds of time on PA TV, to see Israeli-Jewish soldiers,
all wearing religious skull caps, as cold blooded murderers of children.
 |
 |
 |
·
PA children: Judaism teaches the murder of Arabs:
PA
children internalize these visual and verbal hate messages and affirm
that Judaism is life threatening for them as Arabs:
Child
“[Israeli soldiers’] beliefs
were formed by the Hebrew Bible, their fanatic Zionist leaders and the
other fanatic organizations... that made them make hideous decisions
against the Palestinians and even against the Arabs. They fight the
Arabs, not only Palestinians, by killing Palestinians, expelling Palestinians
and expelling Arabs. All this is permitted according to their dictionary,
their constitution and their religion....”
PA TV,
·
PA Entertainment: Judaism promotes extermination of Palestinians
The
PA also uses cultural expression and entertainment media to promote
these hate messages. One particularly hateful full-length movie, depicting
Jews planning the extermination of Palestinians, was broadcast numerous
times over several years on PA TV. The following are two scenes from
the
Rabbi’s Prayer: “Palestinians have no place on this land. Never! If
we ever keep one of them alive, it would be as if we had done nothing.
May God exterminate all Palestinians.”
Woman talking to Rabbi:
“Palestinians should leave
this land since it’s not theirs. Just like you [Rabbi] I wished God
to exterminate all of them, but this didn’t happen, and to do that,
we have to throw them out of this land. We won’t let them back, even
in dreams. We have to wipe [out] all of their traces as if they didn’t
exist before... We did this before, so, we can do it now.”
PA TV, first broadcast
Feb. 2 2001, and most recently in 2004
·
Jews responsible for the Second World War, the Holocaust and
the Tsunami
Going
from general libels to the specific, the PA accuses Jews of responsibility
for everything from the Second World War to the Holocaust, and even
the recent Tsunami tragedy that left at least 150,000 dead in
“Rabbi Rabinovitch
said in his speech in the International Rabbinical Committee in
Al Hayat
Al Jadida,
·
Jews are blamed for murdering other Jews in the Holocaust:
Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi
“Another example of their
malicious deeds is the so-called ’Holocaust,’ the slaughter of Jews
by Nazis. According to research texts and researchers, this crime was
committed against certain Jews and was planned as policy by the Jewish
leaders.”
PA TV,
At
other times, the official Palestinian media will deny the Holocaust.
Issam Sissalem
“Lies surfaced about Jews
being murdered here and there and the Holocaust. And, of course, these
are all lies and unfounded claims. No
PA TV,
Ismail Al Fakaw, discussing a book called “The Holocaust
Industry”
“[The Holocaust] was a real
event that occurred from 1939 to 1945. However, it did not just affect
the Jews in Europe, but also other nations including the Poles, the
Hungarians, the Russians - as you remember, 20 million Russians were
killed and Germans, and Gypsies. They were annihilated and killed as
a result of the war, and not due to a prior plan… It is possibly true
that Hitler planned the extermination of disabled Germans. It is likely
that these things are true, I don’t know… This is the historical truth:
the true Nazi Holocaust. I apologize for using the word “Holocaust”.
This is a word that they try to attach only to the Jews who were killed,
but I use this expression in the human sense. It can also be used to
refer to the Palestinians and the suffering that the Israelis [have
caused] them...”
PA TV,
·
Holocaust denial in popular culture
Holocaust
denial has been expressed even in a crossword puzzle in the official
PA daily:
“Crossword Puzzle Clue: ‘The
Jewish center for eternalizing the Holocaust and the lies.’
“Solution:
’Yad Vashem.’” (
Al-Hayat
Al Jadida,
·
Children’s musical broadcast: Jews made ovens for burning Palestinians
A
PA TV musical for children included the ultimate abuse of the Holocaust,
teaching children that the Jews didn’t suffer a Holocaust, but rather
made ovens to burn Palestinians:
Musical Play for Children
“From the 1921 [Arab] revolt
until the strike of 1936, the nation rose as a volcano against the villain-usurpers.
The evil plot was exposed, in the alliance among Satans, when the treacherous Jews, set their eyes on all
PA TV,
Children
are taught to see Jewish education as threatening. Indeed, the common
libel that
“The
This
teaching that the Jews are dangerous and threatening is often couched
in ugly metaphors, such as Jews being a disease or a cancer. Senior
religious official Sheikh Ibrahim Mudrayis
defined the Jews as a cancer, and charged that the Jews and
Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris
“The Muslim remembers, how the Jews corrupted the land... Oh Muslims! The
Jews are Jews. Their character and custom are the corruption and destruction
of this land. We keep warning you: the Jews are a cancer that spreads
inside the body of the Islamic and Arab nation.... They invest in the
East Asian countries, which were destroyed [by the Tsunami] because
of the Jewish and American corruption and destruction.”
PA TV,
Senior
historian Issam Sissalem used a “parasitic
worm” simile in referring to the Jews who came to
“[Jews-Israelis] are like a parasitic worm that
eats a snail and lives in its shell. We will not let anyone live in
our shell.”
PA TV,
Children
have incorporated this hate imagery and likewise refer to Jews as germs
and cancer.
Girl 1 on PA TV: Jews are germs and cancer
“That evil which is found
in the Jews has become a germ among us, it is a cancer that buried us
and is still burying and we are the ones who suffer from this cancer...”
PA TV,
Interestingly,
on the very same program, a different child accuses Jews of seeing Arabs
as “germs.”
Girl 2 on PA TV: Jewish religion says Arabs are germs
“This [Jewish] religion says
that
PA TV,
·
Historical persecuting, expulsion and killing of Jews are justified
as self defense and revenge:
Because
Jews were said to be so detrimental to societies in which they lived,
a common theme in PA ideology is that persecution of Jews throughout
history was justified as nations protected themselves and took revenge
against the Jews.
PA psychologist, Khadar Abas:
Jews responsible for anti-Semitic persecution.
“The Israelis brought on themselves,
I emphasize, brought on themselves in every
society they lived, disasters and massacres: First, they concentrated
money in their hands, denying it to others. Second, they spied against
the nations where they lived. And the third, important and basic aspect
they were superior. These three elements created hatred [of Jews]. Thus
the people of the societies they were in took revenge against them,
or tried to punish them.”
PA TV,
It
is important to note that this defamation of Jews is not a function
of the current conflict. Even as far back as 1998, during the most optimistic
period of the peace process, the PA was promoting the hate ideology
that Jews were responsible for anti-Semitism. Persecution, expulsion
and even “wars of annihilation” that Jews suffered throughout history
are said to have been acts of self-defense against the danger of the
Jews:
·
Official PA Daily: Jews responsible for anti-Semitic persecution.
Nasser Ahmad
“Corruption is in the nature
of the Jews all over the world, to the point where only rarely do you
find corruption that Jews are not behind. Their intense love of money
and its accumulation is common knowledge, and the way they get it does
not interest them and they are liable to exercise degradation and the
most lowly of methods in order to achieve their
goals…
If we take a look at history,
we discover to what degree the Jews were exposed to loss and expulsion
over the world, as a result of their ugly deeds and their wickedness.
This is after their issues were discovered and their responsibility
for the destruction of the land and its people caused its [local] people
to start a war of annihilation against them and those who survived were
dispersed around the world…[Jews] believe that
the secret of their survival is embedded in their takeover of the economies
of the various countries which opened their doors to them and gave them
refuge from the expulsion and harassment…”
Al Hayat
Al Jadida,
Islamic
anti-Jewish legislation, found in the Pact of Omar, which prohibited
Jews from living in
“The Pact says that no Jew
is allowed to live in
PA TV,
Thus,
concluded the lecturer, a court of law today presented with the simple
facts of the truly negative behavior of the Jews would make the same
decision, and expel Jews from
“If we presented this before
a judge [now]...he would renew this condition ... the solution is that
no Jew should live there... The prosperity of this city [
PA TV,
These
accusations – that Jews rule the world and bring hatred upon themselves
– continue unabated under the post-Arafat PA leadership. A PA religious
leader laments the current Jewish control over the world while reminiscing
over the glorious past, when Muhammad justifiably punished the Jews
for their iniquities:
“The days of the pilgrimage
to Mecca remind (the Muslims) and connect him to the past history,,remind him of the triumphs and conquests, remind him
of the Muslims’ glory and the lowliness of the Jews – who today rule
the world – how Mohammad expelled them from Medina in retribution for
their actions, their hostility and corruption, and not false charge
nor unjustly. No! It was a retribution for their actions and hostility
towards Islam and Muslims, and moreover, against anything that was Arab.”
PA TV,
·
Jews behind world conflicts and potential world destruction
Summarizing
this theme, PA religious leaders explain that all the world’s problems
are caused by the Jews. Left unchecked, the Jews – “a mere 7 million
troubled the entire earth” – and could bring about world destruction:
Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris
“When Muhammad entered
PA TV,
Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris
“The Jews will not rest until
they ignite the whole world with the fire of their conflicts… Our war
against Zionism is not a war against the Israeli government [alone],
but a much greater war. It is a war against World Zionism that has begun
controlling decision centers, controlling the Security Council, controlling
the
PA TV,
The
depiction of Jews as controlling world decisions and responsible for
world conflicts is not limited to the PA, but is rampant today in the
Arab world. At the Islamic Summit Conference in October 2003, Malaysian
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said:
“The Europeans killed six
million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by
proxy. They get others to fight and die for them…
They invented and successfully promoted Socialism,
Communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would
appear to be wrong, so they may enjoy equal rights with others. With
these they have now gained control of the most powerful countries.”
Most
significantly, Mohamad’s description of Jews’
controlling the world was not ignored by the leaders of Islamic nations
worldwide but the opposite:
“His speech drew strong applause.”
Stage 3 Anti Semitism
Eliminating
the Threat:
·
“The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until the Muslim
kills the Jew.”
The
first two stages have defined the PA’s “objective” reality: Stage 1
defines the nature of Jews and Stage 2 shows how it affects the world.
Stage 1 defines the nature of Jews as inherently negative, while Stage
2 warns that this nature cannot be ignored because it threatens the
entire world. With these arguments firmly in place
and with God as the star witness
the PA case against the Jews can result in only one verdict.
The world is left with no choice but to defend itself against the Jews
by fighting, subjugating and killing them. The Muslims will perform
an act of service for the world and for God, by killing the Jews.
The
call to kill Jews because they are Jews is often supported by religious
sources, but is not limited to religious leaders
·
Religious leaders
Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi
"All weapons must be aimed at the Jews,
Allah’s enemies, the cursed nation in the Koran, whom Allah describes
as monkeys and pigs… [The] Koran says clearly that the worst enemies
of the Moslem Nation are the Jews, may Allah fight them...”
PA TV,
Jewish
suffering throughout history at the hands of Muslims is said to have
been God’s will:
Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa Najem
“… Allah said against the
Jews and the Idolaters, ’Your Lord has declared that he will surely
send against them [Jews] until Resurrection, those [Arabs and Muslims]
who will afflict them with terrible torment…’”
PA TV,
·
Academic Leaders
Dr. Ismail Radwan,
Professor of Hadith, Islamic University
”It is no coincidence that the Noble Koran mentions
the story of Muhammad’s Heavenly ascent while talking of the Israelites
as though Allah was preparing the Islamic nation that Jews will be in
this land and as if He was addressing the Muslims: Oh Muslims, prepare
yourselves for the struggle with world Jewry.”
PA TV,
Children
are also taught through music videos to fight the Jews. In one video,
broadcast hundreds of times on PA TV from 2001-2004, young children
are shown destroying the symbols of Judaism with their rocks.
“Even if they [Jews] gathered
from the world, your debt remains open with me. Even if you decreed
my death, the stone is my revenge, my answer.”
Broadcast hundreds of times
on PA TV from 2001-2004
Portraying
the Jews as having deserved death from God is promoted even in new PA
schoolbooks written in 2001 by the PA Education Ministry. These books
include passages from the Koran teaching that Jews should long for death,
as directed by Allah himself:
“...Jews, if you think that
you are favored of Allah, to the exclusion of (other) men. Then long
for death if you are truthful... Death from
which you flee, will surely overtake you.”
Reading the Koran, 6th
grade PA school book, page 23
It
must be made clear that citing this is not meant as a critique of the
Koran or of Islam, but as a critique of those PA educators who specifically
chose readings aggressive to Jews to be included in the PA primary school
curriculum, and did not choose other verses
from the Koran that promote reconciliation with Jews.
It
is important to note how the demand to fight, subjugate, and kill Jews
is presented as self-defense against Jews.
Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiyah, Sharia
(Islamic Law) Rulings Council, Rector of Advanced Studies, Islamic University
“The Jews are the Jews. Whether Labor or Likud the Jews are Jews.
They do not have any moderates or any advocates of peace. They are all
liars. They must be butchered and must be killed... The Jews are like
a spring as long as you step on it with your foot it doesn’t move. But
if you lift your foot from the spring, it hurts you and punishes you…
“It is forbidden to have mercy
in your hearts for the Jews in any place and in any land. Make war on
them any place that you find yourself. Any place that you meet them,
kill them.”
PA TV,
Soon
after this call to kill Jews, a teenager on PA TV expressed this desire
to kill all Jews:
“Kill them all... we won’t
leave a single Jew here.”
Young Girl, PA TV,
·
Resurrection and redemption depend on extermination of the
Jews
The
PA leadership goes far beyond these general calls to murder Jews. The
definitive solution is said to be a predetermined future in which one
of the preconditions for the redemption of humanity through the “Hour,”
the Resurrection, is the killing of Jews wherever they may be. The PA
promotes this belief by teaching repeatedly in their print media and
on PATV, the following Hadith –
Islamic tradition attributed to Muhammad:
“The Hour [of Resurrection]
will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews, and kill them.
And the Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree
will say: oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me,
come and kill him!”
Sahih Muslim, vol. 4, pp. 2238-2239, no. 2921-2
Sahih Bukhari, vol. 3, p. 1070,
no. 276, and p. 1316, no. 3398
Sahih Ibn Hibban,
vol. 15, p. 217, no. 6806 and others
Dozens
of times in recent years, Palestinian religious leaders and academics
have taught publicly that this genocidal Hadith,
articulated more than a thousand years ago, applies today and is a religious
obligation:
Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi
“We are waging this cruel
war with the brothers of the monkeys and pigs, the Jews and the sons
of
PA TV,
Just
two days earlier, another religious leader expressed the same demand
to kill Jews, justifying God’s words as self-defense for the world.
Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris
“The Prophet said: the Resurrection
will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims
kill them. The Muslims will kill the Jews, rejoice [in it], rejoice in Allah’s Victory. The Muslims will kill the Jews,
and he will hide... “The Prophet said: the Jews will hide behind the
rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: oh servant of Allah,
oh Muslim this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!.
Why is there this malice? Because there are none who love the Jews on
the face of the earth: not man, not rock, and not tree – everything
hates them. They destroy everything, they destroy the trees and destroy the houses.
Everything wants vengeance on the Jews, on these pigs on the face of
the earth, and the day of our victory, Allah willing, will come.”
PA TV,
Often
the calls to murder were very specific in their calls for suicide bombings
as fulfillment of this Islamic goal:
Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi
“All the weapons must be aimed at the Jews, Allah’s
enemies, the cursed nation in the Koran, whom Allah describes as monkeys
and pigs, worshippers of the calf and idol worshippers… Nothing will
deter them except the color of blood in their filthy nation … unless
we blow ourselves up, willingly and as our duty, in their midst… We
will blow them up in Hadera,
we will blow them up in Tel-Aviv and in Netanya
so that Allah will make us masters over this riff-raff. We will fight
against them and rule over them until the Jew will hide behind the tree
and rock and the tree and rock will say: ’Muslim! Servant of Allah,
there is a Jew behind me, kill him.”
PA TV,
The
call for genocide has continued even since Arafat’s death in November
2004. On
“Muhammad said in his Hadith: ’The Hour [of Resurrection] will not arrive until
you fight the Jews and the rock and the tree will say: Oh Muslim, servant
of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!’
...Allah meant our land and
our people and meant our trees and our stones.”
PA TV,
On
Jan. 10, 2005 another lecture of Hassan Khater was broadcast on PA TV in witch he again cited the
same Hadith calling for the killing of all
Jews everywhere.
·
All Muslims must Kill Jews:
The
PA presents the call to kill Jews not as a Palestinian duty related
to the conflict, but as a Pan-Islamic duty:
Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi
“This Hadith
clarifies to us the characteristics of the campaign between us and the
Jews. The tree and the rock do not say ’Oh, Palestinian,’ ’Oh Arab,’
or ’Oh resident of the Middle East.’ Rather they say: ’Oh, Muslim, Servant
of Allah [kill the Jew behind me.]’”
PA TV,
This
official PA line that God demands the killing of Jews was expressed
in graphic form on the Hamas website promising entry to Heaven to those who
follow God’s command. The words read:
“We shall knock on heaven’s
doors with the skulls of Jews”
When
21-year-old Palestinian terrorist Reem Riyashi read the statement that she anticipated Heaven as
God’s reward for killing Jews, her words were merely echoing and reflecting
the teachings of PA society:
“It
was always my wish to turn my body into deadly shrapnel against the
Zionists and to knock on Heaven’s doors with the skulls of Zionists.”
·
The inevitable goal: annihilation of Jews:
Muhammad
Abd Al Hadi La’afi, responsible for Religious Teaching and Instruction
in the Office of the Wakf
“The battle with the Jews
will surely come... The Prophet spoke about in more than one Hadith and the Resurrection will not come without the victory
of the believers [the Muslims] over the descendants of the monkeys and
pigs and with their annihilation.”
Al Hayat
Al Jadida,
Parallels to Nazi Ideology:
Since
the defeat of Nazi Germany, state-promoted genocide has been taboo.
Although some national leaders have orchestrated mass murder in the
last 50 years, no government has openly preached genocide as a systematic
ideology of public policy. This taboo has now been broken by the Palestinian
Authority. The parallels between PA Islamic ideology and Nazi ideology
are as striking as they are horrific. Echoes of Hitler’s Mein
Kampf are heard in official PA teachings:
A. Jews are the cause of world conflict and destruction:
·
Palestinian Authority
Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris
“The Jews will not rest until
they ignite the whole world with the fire of their conflicts… The
Jews are behind any conflict that can cause world destruction…
Those [Jews] who are the cause
of all catastrophes on earth … those [Jews] who spit their poisons at
the international and regional level … are
the reason for every disaster of the world...”
PA TV,
·
Nazi Germany
Hitler’s Mein Kampf:
“The more I knew the Jews, the more I had to pardon the [German] workers…
For only in the brains of monsters
not men could such a
plan and organization assume palpable form, the actions [by the Jews]
would have as their final result the collapse of human culture,
thereby leading to the desolation of the world… If the Jew with
the help of his Marxist creed is victorious over the peoples of this
world, then his crown will be the funeral wreath of humanity…”
B. The Jews must be fought:
·
Palestinian Authority
Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi
“All the weapons must be aimed
at the Jews, Allah’s enemies, the cursed nation in the Koran, whom Allah
describes as monkeys and pigs, worshippers of the calf and idol worshippers…Nothing
will deter them except the color of blood in their filthy nation... We are waging this cruel war with the brothers
of the monkeys and pigs, the Jews and the sons of Zion.”
PA TV,
·
Nazi Germany
Hitler’s Mein Kampf:
“The only salvation remaining was war, war with all the weapons the human
spirit, reason, and will could muster...”
C. Fighting the Jews is doing God’s work:
·
Palestinian Authority
Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa Najem
“Servants of Allah, be you
the ones by whom Allah tortures the Jews with harsh torment.”
PA TV,
·
Nazi Germany
Hitler’s Mein Kampf: “I believe today that I am acting according to the will of the almighty
Creator: when I defend myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the
work of the Lord.”
D. Jews must be annihilated:
·
Palestinian Authority
Muhammad Abd Al Hadi
La’afi, Responsible for Religious Teaching
and Instruction in the Office of the Wakf
“The battle with the Jews
will surely come… The decisive Muslim victory is coming without a doubt,
and the prophet spoke about in more than one Hadith,
and the Day of Resurrection will not come without the victory of the
believers [the Muslims] over the descendants of the monkeys and pigs
[the Jews] and with their annihilation.”
Al Hayat
Al Jadida,
·
Nazi Germany
Hitler Reichstag,
Conclusions
History
keeps reminding us, as it did again on September 11, 2001, that unchecked
evil ideology will lead to heinous crimes against humanity. It was a
common error before the Second World War for people to minimize Nazi
hatred, dismissing it as rhetoric or propaganda. Six million Jews and
tens of millions of others paid with their lives because the world couldn’t
bring itself to believe that a national that openly embraced the idea
of state murder would put this concept into practice.
In
explaining the civilized world’s inability to recognize the danger of
Nazism, Justice Robert H. Jackson, Chief US Counsel to the Nuremberg
Trials, wrote:
“We must not forget that
when the Nazi plans were boldly proclaimed, they were so extravagant
that the world refused to take them seriously.”1
Now
it is the Palestinian Authority leaders who boldly and extravagantly
proclaim their plans, elevating their call to genocide to the will of
Allah. Let the world not make the same mistake again.
*****
The
three stages of anti-Semitism found in PA ideology can be viewed as
a scale that can be broadly applied in the study of anti-Semitism and
racism. (See the following Appendix.)
Appendix
Universal Racism – Anti-Semitism Scale
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
Stage 1 Anti-Semitism (Racism):
Collective Labeling
Defining an ethnic group’s nature as inferior or evil.
Stage 2 Anti-Semitism (Racism):
Creating the Threat
The
nature delineated in Stage One is portrayed as a dangerous threat, ranging
from a local menace to a threat facing all of humanity. This threat
can manifest itself in many realms, ranging from health crises, natural
disasters, financial upheaval, internal conflicts, and wars.
Stage 3 Anti-Semitism (Racism):
Eliminating the Threat
Fighting
back against the ethnic group is portrayed as justified and even as
a necessary act of self-defense in order to eliminate the threat and/or
achieve justice.
This
fighting takes three forms:
Stage 3A
Attacks on property, symbols,
houses of worship, cemeteries, etc…
Stage 3B
Attacks
on persons, ranging from minor beatings to murder.
Stage 3C
Positing
genocide as the justified or inevitable solution.
About the Authors:
Itamar Marcus is the founder
and director of Palestinian Media Watch. Mr. Marcus was appointed by
the Israel Government as the Israeli representative (communications
specialist) to the Trilateral [Israeli- Palestinian- American] anti
Incitement Committee established under the Wye
Accords. From 1998 - 2000, Mr. Marcus served as director of research
for the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, writing reports on
PA, Syrian and Jordanian Schoolbooks.
Barbara Crook is the associate
director and North American representative of Palestinian Media Watch.
She teaches at the School of Journalism and Communications at Carleton
University in Ottawa, Canada.