“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 Israel
· 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,July 28, 2000
· October 2000
“Kill them all... we won’t leave a single Jew here.”
Young Girl, PA TV, Oct. 22, 2000
· 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, September 10, 2004
· 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, January 10, 2005
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, November 1, 2002
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, June 4, 2004
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, December 6, 2002
· 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, April 14, 2002
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, October 12, 2003
· 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, August 23, 2004
· 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, December 20, 2000
· 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, September 21, 2001
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, November 1, 2002
Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris
“Praise Allah, Who cursed the non-believers among the People of the Book...”
PA TV, June 4, 2004
· 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, November 1, 2002
Dr. Mahmoud Mustafah Najem
“Praise be to Allah, who has cursed [the Jews], the brothers of monkeys and pigs.”
PA TV, December 6, 2002
Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi
“We are waging this cruel war with the brothers of the monkeys and pigs, the Jews and the sons of Zion
PA TV, September 12, 2004
Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi
“For Allah was angry and called them once monkeys, pigs and donkeys…”
PA TV, March 30, 2001
· 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, Surat
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 Jerusalem
Al Hayat Al Jadida, June 5, 2004
· 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 Ala.
PA TV, September 29, 2003
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, December 17, 1998
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.”
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| Al-Ayyam, March 27, 2004 | Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 28, 1999 | Al-Quds March 7, 2004 |
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| 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 Nablus Jerusalem
PA TV, November 3, 1998
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 NetureiKarta have actively supported the PA in its fight against Israel
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, December 17, 1998
· 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, June 23, 2002
· The Holiday of Passover: A Celebration of Murder and Theft
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 Egypt
Al Hayaa, April 15, 2001
Jewish religious symbols are likewise debased. While blaming Israel Kuwait
Text: “The Israeli drug smuggling network”
Al Hayat Al Jadida, April 17, 2000
· The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
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 Israel
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 Zion Basel
PA TV, December 28, 2003
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, December 1, 2003
· Israel
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 Israel Israel
Ahmad Nasser, Secretary of the Palestinian Legislative Council
"We see that Israel Israel
Interviewer: "This concept appears in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that they [Jews] are superior and the rest are inferior.”
PA TV, February 6, 2004
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, February 8, 2002
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:
“Britain Germany France December 28, 2003
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 Britain
“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] Palestine Europe of the burden of her Jews…”
Al Hayat Al Jadida, June 12, 1998
PA Children have accepted and embraced this teaching, expressing that “countries of the world took part” in the creation of Israel
Majda [teenager]
“Regarding the problem of the Jewish presence, you’d agree that the Jewish presence in the land of ’Palestine Zion
PA TV, June 23, 2002
· 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, February 7, 1998
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, January 25, 2001
· 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 Jerusalem Mecca
PA TV, September 24, 2004
· 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, December 6, 2002
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 inPalestine
PA TV, December 12, 2002
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, March 2, 2001
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.
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· 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, June 23, 2002
· 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 movie Garden
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 Asia . Just as the PA fabricates Jewish traditions and sources, it also fabricates quotes and attributes them to Jewish leaders who are said to be part of the conspiracy to rule the world. In these fictitious statements, Jewish leaders accept responsibility for causing the Second World War, in order to further the Zionist cause:
“Rabbi Rabinovitch said in his speech in the International Rabbinical Committee in Budapest America Germany
Al Hayat Al Jadida, January 31, 2000
· 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, September 21, 2001
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 Dachau Auschwitz ; these were disinfection sites...”
PA TV, November 29, 2000
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, May 27, 2003
· 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.’” (Israel
Al-Hayat Al Jadida, February 18, 1999
· 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 Palestine
PA TV, May 25, 2004
Children are taught to see Jewish education as threatening. Indeed, the common libel that Israel Middle East is presented as actual education. In a video produced by MBC TV (Dubai), which PA TV broadcast numerous times in 2000 and 2001, a fictitious Israeli classroom of religious Jewish children speaking Hebrew [with heavy Arab accents] are shown repeating after an “Israeli” teacher:
“The land of Israel Nile to the Euphrates ”.
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 IbrahimMudrayis defined the Jews as a cancer, and charged that the Jews and America Asia that caused the deaths of more than 150,000:
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, January 7, 2005
Senior historian Issam Sissalem used a “parasitic worm” simile in referring to the Jews who came to Israel
“[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, December 21, 2004
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, June 23, 2002
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 Palestine
PA TV, June 23, 2002
· 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, April 14, 2002
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, July 11, 1998
Islamic anti-Jewish legislation, found in the Pact of Omar, which prohibited Jews from living in Jerusalem
“The Pact says that no Jew is allowed to live in Jerusalem Jerusalem
PA TV, December 14, 2004
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 fromJerusalem Israel
“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 [Jerusalem
PA TV, December 14, 2004
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, January 14, 2005
· 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 Medina
PA TV, June 4, 2004
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 US
PA TV, December 12, 2003
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, August 3, 2001
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, December 6, 2002
· 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, February 11, 2002
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, October 13, 2000
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, October 22, 2000
· 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 Zion
PA TV, September 12, 2004
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, September 10, 2004
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, August 3, 2001
The call for genocide has continued even since Arafat’s death in November 2004. On December 27, 2004 , PA TV decided to rebroadcast a particularly odious lecture by PA academic and TV lecturer Dr. Hassan Khater. In this lecture he analyzed this same Hadith in great detail, and concluded that Muhammad taught this, linking redemption to the killing of Jews, in anticipation of the Palestinian war against Israel:
“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, December 27, 2004
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, March 30, 2001
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, May 18, 2001
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, December 12, 2003 and September 24, 2004
· 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, September 12, 2004 and August 3, 2001
· 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, November 1, 2002
· 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, May 18, 2001
· Nazi Germany
Hitler Reichstag, January 30, 1939 . “If international financial Jewry inside and outside of Europe should succeed once again in plunging the nations into a world war, the result will not be the Bolshevization of the world and thus a Jewish victory, but rather the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe…”
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.
