The level of hatred perpetuated in Muslim Palestinian communities is a key driver in the ongoing conflict, yet is ignored by our media.

Although Palestinian rhetoric is not exclusively founded on a Muslim perspective, Islam tends to dominate the discourse. The geographical and ideological heart of the rhetoric is the city of Jerusalem, in Arabic, ‘al-Quds’, a shortened form of ‘Bayt al Quds’, which means ‘House of the Holiness’. It refers to the urban surroundings of the mosque of al-Aqsa, which is at the southern end of the Temple Mount platform, also known as ‘al-Haram al-Sharif’. ‘Al-Quds’ is also the name of a Jerusalem-based Arabic newspaper, as well as the name of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s armed brigades and of their indigenously-produced and illegally-used rockets. ‘Al-Aqsa’ is also used as a motivator of Palestinian violence, as illustrated above, where the Arabic reads: “Run over Zionists for the sake of al-Aqsa” (2014)¹

Denying Israel’s Jewish past

As recently as September 29th this year, the acting Secretary-General of the PLO’s Popular National Conference on Jerusalem, Mufti Muhammad Hussein proclaimed on TV, “If we turn to the history of Palestine, it has been occupied by many peoples, and many invaders have entered it, but in the end the occupation left and the invaders left. … Jerusalem will certainly be liberated and return to the embrace of Islam, noble and strong with its holy sites and its people. And the evil will pass, Almighty Allah willing.”²

With regards to that “holy site”, the Islamic historical narrative has morphed as political ideologies dominate. In its 1924 and 1929 official guides the Supreme Moslem Council had freely recognised the pre-existence of the Jewish Temple, stating “Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute” and acknowledging that it was on the spot “on which ‘David built there an altar to the Lord …’”, even citing “2 Samuel XXIV 25” in a footnote.³ Yet at the Camp David peace talks in 2000, Yasser Arafat told President Bill Clinton “I will not allow it to be written of me that I have...confirmed the existence of the so-called Temple beneath the Mount.”⁴ As recently as 2017, when the UN Secretary-General made clear reference to the fact that a Jewish temple once stood on the Temple Mount, Palestinian officials demanded that he recant and make an apology to the Palestinian people.⁵

Inspired by anti-Semitic hatred

Is this mere politics or is anti-Semitism at work? Here’s the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, speaking on their official TV channel in 2015: “The Al-Aqsa is ours... and they [the Jews] have no right to defile it with their filthy feet. We will not allow them to, and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem.”⁶

Such invective is not confined to Palestinians, nor even to political leaders, as the rhetoric of imams is even more vicious, as illustrated in a recent Friday sermon in Kamshish, Egypt, circulated via the internet: “Allah spoke the truth when He described them in the Quran as ‘those who incurred the wrath of Allah’, in the Al-Fatiha chapter. ‘Those who incurred the wrath of Allah’ are the Jews. They truly and completely deserve the wrath of Allah. They truly and completely deserve that some of them were transformed into apes and pigs, because they are the epitome of treachery, lies, and transgression.”⁷ This hadith was widely preached this year, even in such places as Houston (Texas), Raleigh (North Carolina), and Toulouse (France).⁸

Incitement to genocide

Hajj Amin salutes a Muslim-volunteer Waffen-SS unit, 1943 - see note 12 The wartime Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini proclaimed, “It is the duty of Muhammadans in general and Arabs in particular to ... drive all Jews from Arab and Muhammadan countries ... Germany is also struggling against the common foe who oppressed Arabs and Muhammadans in their different countries. It has very clearly recognized the Jews for what they are and resolved to find an ‘endgültige Lösung’ [final solution] for the Jewish danger that will eliminate the scourge that Jews represent in the world”.⁹ From Berlin in 1942 he broadcast, “You must kill the Jews, before they open fire on you. … Your sole hope of salvation lies in annihilating the Jews before they annihilate you.”¹⁰ This same Mufti advised Arafat in 1968 to take over the Palestine Liberation Organization, which he headed until 2004, and “to liberate Palestine”, operating out of Gaza with Fatah troops.¹¹

On January 9th, 2012, Muhammad Hussein, a descendant of Hajj Amin, current Grand Mufti and Temple-denier, addressed a crowd at an event marking the 47th anniversary of the founding of Fatah. He quoted a hadith attributed to Muhammed, stating: “The Hour will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jews will hide behind stones or trees. Then the stones or trees will call: O Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”¹³ This saying was widely circulated by the Palestinian Authority’s TV channel and has been utilised on many other occasions.

In 2013, the ‘moderate’ Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, using a phrase chillingly close to Hitler’s ‘final solution’, declared “In a final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli – civilian or soldier – on our lands.”

In 2013, the ‘moderate’ Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, using a phrase chillingly close to Hitler’s ‘final solution’, declared “In a final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli – civilian or soldier – on our lands.”¹⁴ Here’s Sheikh Omar Abu Sara, preaching in al-Aqsa mosque in November 2014: “Talking about the traits of the Jew …. we are dealing with people to whom every single vile trait has been attributed. They were the masters of these vile traits, and they taught their secrets to others. … I say to the Jews loud and clear, the time for your slaughter has come. The time to fight you has come. The time to kill you has come…Please do not leave in our hearts a single grain of mercy towards you, oh Jews, because when the day of your slaughter arrives, we shall slaughter you without mercy.”^{15Cartoon published by Hamas, November 18th, 2014, declaring approval of the Har Nof synagogue massacre. The captions read ‘For you O Aqsa’ and ‘Jerusalem resists’.16}

On al-Aqsa TV from Gaza, in October 2015, Imam Iyad Abu Funun asserted, “I want to swear on the Quran that not a single Jew will remain on this land. Not a single settler will remain on this land. Absolutely not. … We and you are on the same land, but we have our complete faith in Allah and in the strength of the mujahideen, and we will not leave a single one of you, alive or dead, on this land. By Allah, we will dig up your bones from the graves and get them out of this country. We will not leave any trace of you on this land.”¹⁷

Incitement leads to deadly enactment

In the ‘Intifada’ of October to December 2015 there were 14 car-rammings, 32 shootings and 88 stabbing attacks against Jews. These occurred in response to explicit incitement. For example, on October 9th, in a Friday prayers sermon that was streamed via the Internet from Rafah, Gaza, Sheikh Muhammad Sallah, waving a knife in his fist, called on Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank to “attack in threes and fours” and “cut them into body parts.”¹⁸ Many similar bloodthirsty incitements could be quoted.

In one of the above incidents a 19-year-old youth, Muhannad al-Halabi, stabbed to death two orthodox Jews, Aharon Bennett, 21, and Nehamia Lavi, 41, a rabbi, in the Old City of Jerusalem. Bennett’s wife and 2-year-old child were also injured. Al-Halabi was shot dead by police. His father, Shafiq, said, “I am proud of my son and what he did − he has done what 1.5 million Muslims have failed to do.” He was honoured as a Shahid (martyr) in his home town, with a monument on which the slogan “From the River to the Sea” was inscribed, and a street named after him.¹⁹ A sample survey by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research in December 2015 estimated that the total number of Palestinians who approved of the ‘knife intifada’ was over 3.1 million.²⁰

A sample survey by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research in December 2015 estimated that the total number of Palestinians who approved of the ‘knife intifada’ was over 3.1 million.

After the deadly terror attack of November 21st in which Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, disguised as an ultra-Orthodox Jew, killed an Orthodox Israeli following prayers at the Western Wall and left four others wounded, residents of the Hamas-backed perpetrator’s community rallied in the streets in support of the murder. One of those marching in support of the terror group, Shuafat local Mustafa Za’atra, who studied under Abu Shkhaydam, told Arabic language news al-Qastal that “he was the best teacher. He never cursed anyone, or called anyone a bad name, except the Jews, may God burn them.”21

Indoctrination of children

Even more sickeningly, the promotion of racist Anti-Semitic hatred and violence can be seen to start with the very young. On November 16th 2015, the Facebook page of the ‘Jerusalem Intifada’s Young People’s Coalition’ posted a video of a little girl, who is asked “What do you tell the youth in the West Bank?”. Here’s her response.²²

Jerusalem Intifada Young Peoples Coalition image capture - Stab, Stab, Stab A kindergarten ‘graduation’ filmed in Hamas-controlled Gaza in May 2017 shows six-year-old children dressed as armed terrorists, attacking others dressed as Hasidic Jews, with their long sidelocks and prayer shawls. At one point in the horrific footage, the children are even encouraged to pledge to “Kill Jews.”²³

So much for Islam as a “religion of peace”! Were it not for organisations such as Palestine Media Watch (PMW) and Middle East Monitoring (MEMRI) such realities would be hidden behind the otherwise inscrutable screen of Arabic speech and script. Given that there are well-paid competent Arabists in our major media, it is utterly disgraceful that so much readily-accessible information so rarely appears in Britain. And why is that it is always Israel alone that is condemned as racist? The time to redress the bias is long overdue.

This is the fourth of this series. Part 1 compared relative racism in Israel and her neighbours,  Part 2 considered the inclusive foundations of Israel and Zionism, and Part 3 examined Palestian identity.

Endnotes

1. Palestinian Vehicular Terrorism in Jerusalem* (acdemocracy.org) 10 Nov 2014, re-accessed 27 Oct 2021
2. Israel “will pass… Jerusalem will be liberated, return to Islam… The evil will pass,” says PA Mufti | PMW Translations (palwatch.org) accessed 27 Oct 2021
3. Supreme Moslem Council (1924), A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif, Jerusalem, Moslem Orphanage Printing Press
4. What is Beneath the Temple Mount? Smithsonian Magazine accessed 25 Oct 2021
5. E.g. Palestinians protest UN chief for affirming Jewish ties to Temple Mount, The Times of Israel accessed 25 Oct 2021
6. Abbas: We won't allow Jews' "filthy feet" | PMW Analysis (palwatch.org) accessed 25 Oct 2021
7. Egyptian Sheikh: The Jews Deserve Allah’s Wrath, MEMRI 24 Nov 2019, accessed 25 Oct 2021
8. Hamas Cleric and TV Host Abu Funun: We Will Not Leave a Single Jew, Dead or Alive, on Our Land, MEMRI 13 Oct 2015, accessed 21 Oct 2021
9. Achcar, G. (2010), The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives, Henry Holt & Company,
10. Photographic evidence shows Jerusalem Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini at Nazi concentration camp (jihadwatch.org) 8 Apr 2021, accessed 26 Oct 2021
11. Op. cit.
12. Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1980-036-05, Amin al Husseini bei bosnischen SS-Freiwilligen - Amin al-Husseini - Wikipedia accessed 13 Nov 2021
13. PA Mufti: Muslims' destiny is to kill Jews, PMW Analysis (palwatch.org) 12 Jan 2012, accessed 26 Sept 2021
14. Abbas wants 'not a single Israeli' in future Palestinian state Reuters 30 Jul 2013, accessed Jan 2016
15. Original translation by MEMRI, unusually quoted in the UK; Islamic hate preacher jailed eight months 'Jewish slaughter' Express.co.uk 26 Sept 2016
16. Hamas affiliated social media abuzz with cartoons glorifying Jerusalem terror attack, The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com) re-accessed 28 Nov 2018
17. ‘There is a Jew hiding behind me — come and kill him’ The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle (timesofisrael.com) 24 Sept 2021, accessed 25 Oct 2021
18. Gaza cleric calls on Palestinians to stab Jews, 'cut them into body parts', The Times of Israel 12 Oct 2021, accessed 26 Oct 2021
19. Jerusalem stabbing: 'I am proud of my son' says father of Palestinian knife attacker (ibtimes.co.uk) 7 Oct 2015, accessed 26 Oct 2021
20. Palestinian Public Opinion Poll No-58 | PCPSR accessed 26 Oct 2021. Sample survey yielded 67% in favour. Population estimated at about 4.7 million.
21. https://worldisraelnews.com/arabs-march-of-support-for-hamas-terrorist-turns-violent/ 23 Nov 2021
22. Stabbing for kids: Palestinian girl gives demo | PMW Translations (palwatch.org) Nov 12 2015, accessed 26 Oct 2015
23.  A kindergarten graduation in Gaza, 2017 - YouTube 14 Jun 2017, accessed 25 Oct 2021