Monday, April 13, 2009

The hate industry: Hamas incorporates crude anti-Semitism into its battle for hearts and minds


IICC

Recently a play was put on in Gaza whose Jewish characters claimed that they drank Muslim and Arab blood, recycling the ancient blood libel.


Jewish father to his son: “We have to wash our hands in Muslim blood.”
Jewish father to his son: “We have to wash our hands in Muslim blood.”

Overview

1. Hamas's on-going battle for hearts and minds often contains clearly anti-Semitic elements. They are incorporated into its anti-Israeli incitement and use motifs from classic European anti-Semitism as well as those rooted in Islam, 1 moreover anti-Semitism is rooted in Hamas's ideology: the Hamas charter, adopted in 1988, is full of anti-Semitic myths inspired by The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and claims the so-called “Jewish control” of the media, movies and education. The charter also makes the claim that Jews were behind revolutions and wars all over the world (Articles 17 and 22 of the Hamas charter). 2. Recently, two more examples of anti-Semitism were exposed in Hamas's for hearts and minds: A play was put on at the Islamic University in Gaza City to mark the anniversary of the death of Hamas founder sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who died in a targeted killing. It preached hatred of the Jews, making the false allegation that Jews hated Muslims and claiming that Jews drank and washed their hands in Arab-Muslim blood, insinuating it was part of their religious rituals (Al-Aqsa TV, April 3, 2009; for details see the Appendix). In addition, senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Zahar , during a speech given at the Al-Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria , rhetorically asked why, throughout history, the Jews had been massacred. His reply was that recent events in the Gaza Strip [Operation Cast Lead] provided an answer to the question, (Al-Aqsa TV, March 31, 2009) therefore encouraging and justifying killing Jews.

Appendix

Anti-Semitic incitement at a play given at the Islamic University in Gaza City
to mark the anniversary of the killing of Ahmed Yassin

1. A play was recently presented at the Islamic University in Gaza City to mark the death of Hamas founder and leader Ahmed Yassin, who died in a targeted killing. The play, which was also broadcast by Hamas's satellite Al-Aqsa TV on April 3, 2009, was rife with anti-Semitic references and recycling the ancient blood libel that Jews use the blood of non-Jews in their rituals. It also preached hatred of the Jewish people in general and Israeli Jews in particular, and encouraged the violence and terrorism carried out by Hamas and the other terrorist organizations.

2. The play was called “The House of Sheikh Yassin” and its theme, beyond vilifying the Jews and representing the Palestinians as morally superior, was preserving his memory and legacy. The main characters are a Jewish father and son, and a Palestinian father and his crippled son. The Jewish father, dressed as an ultra-Orthodox Jew, the Jewish-Israeli stereotype prevalent in Palestinian propaganda, preaches hatred of Arabs and Muslims to his son, while the Palestinian father tries to soothe his offspring, who was wounded by IDF fire and aspires to be a shaheed (a martyr killed in battle for the sake of Allah). The Jewish son (“Shimon”) goes to fight in the operation in the Gaza Strip. During the fighting he enters the house of the crippled Palestinian and is so frightened and confused he loses his gun and is taken prisoner. The crippled Palestinian turns him over to the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades so that he can join Gilad Shalit in captivity.

3. At one point the Jewish father says, “We Jews hate Muslims. We like to kill Muslims. We Jews drink the blood of Muslims and Arabs .” He then turns to the audience and asks, “ Are you Arabs? Are you Muslims? I hate you. I hate you for the sake of [our] God's will .” Later, he says to his son, “Shimon, I want to teach you some things: first of all, you have to hate Muslims.” Shimon answers, “I don't like them, I hate them.” The father continues, “ You have to drink Muslim blood. We have to wash our hands in Muslim blood ” [in the context of washing hands before prayer], and adds, “We have to conspire against Arabs and Muslims to satisfy God. We will destroy the Arabs and the Muslims.” [Note: He continually repeats the phrase “to satisfy [our] God,” a way of saying Judaism is an evil religion.]

4. The Palestinian father says to his crippled son, “Sheikh Ahmed [Yassin] taught us that we should never surrender or give up the flag [giving up the flag of Islam indicates surrender].” The son says he wants to become a shaheed but his father stops him, saying that he has already paid a high enough price, like Sheikh Yassin (who was also confined to a wheelchair), who never surrendered. They both say, “May Allah grant victory to the jihad fighters.” The play ends with a well-known Hamas song, “A Hamas fighter does not fear death.”

Anti-Semitic incitement at a play given at the Islamic University in Gaza City
Jewish father: “Jews hate Muslims. Jews like to kill Muslims.” The pictures
at the back of the stage are of Ahmed Yassin and other Hamas shaheeds.
Palestinian father and his crippled son, who aspires to martyrdom.

The crippled Palestinian son leads the captured Jewish son to the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, calling the Jew “pig.”
Palestinian father and his crippled son, who aspires to martyrdom.

The crippled Palestinian son leads the captured Jewish son to the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, calling the Jew “pig.”

1 For further information see our April 2008 bulletin “Contemporary Arab-Muslim anti-Semitism, its Significance and Implications(Updated to March 2008)” at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/a_s_170408e.pdf .

2 For further information see our January 2006 bulletin “The Hamas Charter” http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_charter.htm . The charter is crudely anti-Israeli and anti West and presents a radical Islamic worldview. It presents Hamas's fundamental ideology, which is destroy the State of Israel through a long-term violent campaign.

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