'Bosnian' in Palestine mosque

Personal experience shows Hamas has no problem bending truth in order to achieve its goals
Yehuda Litani


During the first intifada at the end of the '80s, I was invited by a group of Hamas leaders to attend a meeting in Gaza. A representative on their behalf met me at the Erez crossing and accompanied me to the movement's offices located in the center of the city.

I was probably the only Israeli in the area at the time. The meeting took place on a Friday before noon and after about 20 minutes, during which I heard some very moderate statements regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the muezzin calls announced that it was time for prayers. My hosts – including some who have meanwhile been killed by Israel – apologized and said they would return at the end of the prayer service in about two hours; they asked me to wait for them in their offices.

I responded by saying I was not prepared to wait alone in the office as I feared for my life. "If you don’t mind, I will accompany you to the prayers" I said. They were somewhat confounded - how would they explain bringing an Israeli journalist to the Hamas movement's main prayer service at the Palestine mosque?

They held a short discussion between them and then informed me: During the prayer service you will be a Bosnian, a hero from the war against the Christian Serbs, and you are visiting us in Gaza (I later discovered that I was given this identity since the Bosnians are known for not particularly adhering to religion – therefore, if people noticed I was unfamiliar with the prayer verses or special customs, they would explain this by saying I was Bosnian).

Words of hatred
Outside, the July sun was beating down. We all squeezed into a single car, and when we reached the mosque it was already filled with thousands of worshipers while hundreds of women waited outside. The prayer service went by with no hitches. The difficulty arose when one of the mosque's best-known preachers took to the podium and proceeded to utter harsh words of incitement against Israel and the Jews.

"All the Jews in the world should be killed," he began, and from that moment on he didn't cease his poisonous ranting against Jews and Christians – once the Jews were modest and took the path of righteousness, but they were influenced by the Christians who made them digress, he said.

He mentioned verses from the Koran that said Jews originated from the apes, and quoted a "hadith" – one of the sayings attributed to the prophet Mohammed – claiming that on the day of judgment, even if a Jew escapes to the desert and hides under a rock or a tree, the rock will begin to speak and the tree will open its mouth and they will say: "Yah Muslim, a Jew is hiding in my midst, let's kill him!"

When we returned from the prayers, my hosts told me that the preacher sought to raise the spirits of the congregation and didn't really mean what he said. I was shocked, scared and agitated, and refused to go up to their offices to resume our meeting – I got into the car and made my way to the Erez crossing.

'Ideological flexibility'
At the parking lot of the Yad Mordechai cafeteria I met one of the military administration officers andI recounted what I had just been through.

"What do you want?" the officer responded. "They did show 'ideological flexibility' after all, and without hesitation bent the truth, both with regards to your identity as well as towards their ideology. They have no qualms in doing so in favor of what they deem a more important goal, such as changing their image in the eyes of the Israeli public."

I recalled this story on the release of the Glad Shalit audiotape – release of information regarding the kidnapped soldier without remuneration, in favor of a more important goal in the eyes of the Hamas leadership: To improve their image in the eyes of residents after the possible release of hundreds of Hamas prisoners jailed in Israel, which may stabilize their flaccid rule there and ease the economic and diplomatic closure.