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| 1. |
Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rantisi, a senior
Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, continues to stand out as the “number
one inciter” to violence and terror in the PA areas. In his frequent
statements he continues to advocate the perpetration of terror attacks
against Israel and the U.S. and to preach for
the pursuit of Jihad (holy war) and Istishhad
(suicide attacks) until the Jews are expelled from the “last millimeter
in Palestine”.
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A photo of Al-Rantisi, from the Hamas journal “Filisteen
Al-Muslima” (22 July 2003). This journal, which is rife with
incitement and hatred, is printed
in Beirut and distributed
from London to the PA and throughout the world.
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| 2. |
Rantisi’s incitement usually includes anti-Semitic
attacks against the Jewish people. The themes he uses are well known
and drawn from both classic European anti-Semitism and Islamic anti-Semitic
interpretations. In recent months his expressions have included motifs such
as blaming the Jews for the murder of the Prophets; claiming that Israel
and the Zionists are carrying out atrocities against the Palestinians “worse
than those perpetrated by Hitler and the Nazis” (while accusing Israel of
various “atrocities” which never took place); Holocaust denial; and accusing
the Zionist Movement of collaboration with the Nazis during the Holocaust. |
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Appendix A |
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Abstract of an anti-Semitic article recently
published by Rantisi |
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| 1. |
On 19 August 2003, the day that Hamas perpetrated
its murderous terror attack in Jerusalem, a scathingly
anti-Semitic article was published by Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rantisi, a senior
Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, on the Internet site of Izz al-Din Al-Qassam
organization. |
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| 2. |
Below are excerpts from the article under the
heading “Which is worse Judaism or Nazism?”: |
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a. |
“Zionism has excelled
in disseminating false propaganda and disinformation. The Zionists have
succeeded greatly in distorting the facts based on the principle that ‘if
you lie long enough people will finally believe you’. They
have managed to market themselves to the world as the only victims of the
Nazis in the world. They have pulled off [this] hoax until they turned the
biggest lie into an historical fact. They managed to deceive the
West, convinced it and led it to believe that it must cooperate with them
in spreading these lies, to the point of creating mutual
interests to both the West and the Zionist idea” (*) |
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(*) Following the announcement that the
U.S. froze Hamas assets, Rantisi lashed out at the U.S.
president describing George Bush as “a great Zionist
and Islam’s number one enemy in the
world”. (Middle East news agency, 23 August 2003). |
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b. |
“Intellectuals and historians managed to expose the Zionist
lies, until they themselves became a target and were persecuted by Zionism...
thus for instance Jewish organizations sued the French
intellectual Garaudy, who in his book “the Founding Myths of Modern
Israel” published in 1995 (which argues that Jews essentially fabricated
the Holocaust for financial and political gain), denied
the myth of the gas chambers when he maintained that this was technically
impossible and no one has proven yet how these imaginary
gas chambers worked”. (*) |
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(*) Roger Garaudy is an ex-communist
French philosopher who converted to Islam. On 27
February 1998 he was convicted by a French court for breaking a law which
forbids the denial
of the Holocaust and the doubting of crimes against humanity. In his book
“The Founding
Myths of Modern Israel” Garaudy stressed, among other things, that under
the Nazi regime the
Jews died in the concentration camps of starvation and disease rather than
from toxic gas. His
books were translated into Arabic and Farsi and his claims in favor of the
Holocaust denial have
been incorporated into the anti-Semitic “hate industry” thriving in the
Arab World. |
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c. |
“It is no secret that the Zionists were
behind the killings of some Jews by the Nazis, in coordination with them
and under their consent, in order to intimidate and compel them to emigrate
to Palestine. Whenever they were unable to convince a group of Jews
to emigrate, they sentenced them to death without hesitation and then conducted
a large propaganda campaign and traded in their blood”. |
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d. |
When we compare Zionism to the Nazis we
are actually doing the Nazis a disservice although we condemn their
acts; this is because the horrific crimes against humanity committed by
the Nazis do not equate with Zionist terrorism against the Palestinian people...
the camera that documented the incident of the murder of the boy Muhammad
Al-Dura failed in documenting photographs of about a
thousand Palestinian babies which the Jews murdered in cold blood during
similar incidents. In the course of their barbaric action they have
abused the bodies of shahids by dragging them through alleys and streets
in front of the camera. With their planes they bombarded
residential neighborhoods and tore apart the bodies of children in their
sleep...”. |
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e. |
“All these are actions from which the
fascist Nazis and even animals would shy away from. The Zionists
broke into all the universities and educational institutions, damaged
scores of mosques and turned some into wine-selling public houses or into
animal pens, they did not hesitate to insult the Prophet (Muhammad), or
slaughter Muslims engaged in prayer during the month of Ramadan in
the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and they also purposely
defile the Al-Aqsa< Mosque. An attempt to list the crimes of Zionism
in one article is an impossible task, but we have reviewed some of them,
which had we attributed to the Nazis, would defile and
damage them severely”. |
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| 3. |
This flagrant use of anti-Semitic
themes on the part of Rantisi is a continuation of similar anti-Semitic
expressions in recent months during the talks regarding the “Road Map”: |
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a. |
“These murderous Zionists killed
the prophets (*).
They will continue their terror against the Palestinian people...I promise
our Arab and Islamic nation that we will continue
with Jihad and the resistance until we drive away the last criminal Zionist
from our land...” (Al- Jazeera, 9 June 2003).
(*) The theme of the
murder of the prophets
(well-known in Islamic-rooted anti-Semitism and
which aims to create a link with the Christian allegations regarding Jewish
responsibility for the
death of Christ) was recently raised by Mahmud
Al-Zahar, a senior Hamas activist in
the Gaza
Strip: “The Israeli hand which liquidated half of the prophets, also liquidated
him (Isma’il Abu
Shanab)” (Al-‘Alam, 22 August 2003) |
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b. |
“What is happening in Nablus proves that the
Nazi Zionist death squads... with all due respect to Hitler, his shoes are
cleaner than theirs. Therefore I say, that these death squads have relentlessly
walked down the path of corruption ... you know that these gangs
are dragging the whole area into calamity... I say, that the criminal enemy,
headed by the leader of the gang, the terrorist Sharon,
will bear full responsibility for what is happening”. (Al-Jazeera, 8 August
2003). |
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| 4. |
Rantisi’s malicious words of incitement
and defamation (as well as those of other Hamas spokespersons) are not exclusively
directed at the Palestinian audience but also resonate
throughout the entire Arab and Muslim world via interviews on pan-Arab
TV stations (Al-Jazeera for example). |
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Appendix B |
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Examples of Islamic-rooted anti-Semitic incitement |
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| 1. |
There is nothing new about Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rantisi’s
recent anti-Semitic expressions. Systematic incitement to violence and hatred
toward Israelis and Jews has been widespread in the PA areas during the
entire course of the Intifada, often in the shape of Islamic-rooted
anti-Semitism (and sometimes also characterized by the “classic”
form of anti-Semitism). The anti-Semitic incitement is mostly carried out
by leaders and clerics, most of whom are identified with the Islamic terrorist
organizations led by Hamas. These expressions
of incitement have been further echoed by PA television. |
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| 2. |
Following are some examples of Islamic-rooted
anti-Semitic incitement
broadcast on Palestinian TV during the Intifada:
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a. |
Sheikh Ibrahim Modeiras Mahmud Awkal,
identified with Hamas during his Friday sermon in Sheikh Ajlin Mosque in
Gaza: “the Palestinian factions have been a model for national unity when
they united around the “hudna” agreement... as usual,
Allah’s saying about the Jews was right “whenever they have given their
word, one of their groups has broken it”. It was the Jews who violated
the bans embedded in these agreements, but with the Jews
there is never either a commitment or a promise. We know this very well...”
(Palestinian TV, 22 August 2003). Further through the sermon the sheikh
encouraged the perpetration of suicide attacks
by outlining the reward awaiting the “shahids”, who “enjoy the pleasures
of heaven”). |
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b. |
Sheikh Muhammad Mustafa Muhammad Najm,
identified with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), during his Friday sermon
at Sheikh Ajlin Mosque in Gaza: “the Prophet Muhammad
bin Abdallah may he rest in peace... whom the Jews have tried time and again
to kill by poison, spell, and stoning, or by using any other political murder.
We have given very serious warning about the Jews, their plots and wickedness.
The Prophet fought them and expelled them from the Arab peninsula. He said
there was no room for two religions in the Arab peninsula. He explained
[this] to us in the Koran and the Suna. He discredited
the character of the Jews so that we would be careful of them and know how
to treat them. He observed Jihad for Allah’s sake and fought well
for Allah...” (Palestinian TV, 8 February 2002). |
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c. |
Sheikh Muhammad Mustafa Muhammad Najm,
during the Friday sermon at Sheikh Ajlin Mosque in Gaza: “the Jews did not
honor the contract the Prophet Muhammad signed with them. The Koran mentioned
the negative character of the Jews: boastfulness, arrogance,
duplicity, and treacherousness. The Jews continue to carry out killings
and bloodshed and continue to betray and fan the flames of war. The common
denominator of all the Jews is hatred of Islam and the
Muslims, hatred for the rightful historical owners of this blessed
land, and therefore it is no wonder Allah turned them into
monkeys and pigs” (Palestinian TV, 1 November
2002). |
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d. |
Dr. Isma’il Sa’id Muhammad Radwan, identified
with PIJ, lectures and runs the library of the Islamic University in Gaza:
“the blessed Allah mentioned the event of the Prophet’s journey and his
rise to heaven followed by the story of the people of Israel and even went
further to mention the corruption of the people
of Israel. The first corruption and the second one
which they committed time and again, and demonstrated its consequences to
those who are honest. Blessed Allah was looking after the Islamic nation
(by) enabling many Jews to congregate in this land,
as if he were saying to the Muslims: Oh Muslims, oh Muhammad,
oh Muslims brace yourselves for the conflict with world Jewry so that you
will be on the winning side of this issue..." (Palestinian TV,
11 February 2002). |
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e. |
Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Madhi, an
Islamic activist linked to Hamas elements, in a sermon in Sheikh
Ajlin Mosque in Gaza: “there is no choice but to turn all the pressure
on the Jews, the worshipers of Allah, the nation cursed by the Koran. Allah
described them as monkeys and pigs, worshipers
of the calf and the devil” (Palestinian TV, 3
August 2001). In another sermon at Sheikh Ajlin Mosque the preacher noted
that there is written proof that the Holocaust “was plotted by Jewish leaders”
(Palestinian TV 21 September 2001). |
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An incitement
leaflet found during Operation Defensive Shield:
“Jewish hatred of the human race” |
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| 3. |
During IDF Operation Defensive Shield
a leaflet was found in the office of the Tulkarm “charity committee”, identified
with Hamas, under the heading “Jewish
hatred of the human race”. The contents which are based on the Koran
describe the Jews as the enemies of Islam and its values, murderers
of the prophets, and as being “haters of the entire human race” (see
below). |
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| 4. |
Following is an excerpt:
“...and if the Jews dared to kill their prophets,
may they rest in peace: ‘it was because they defied the omens of God and
killed the prophets unjustifiably, because they
were renegade and criminal’ (portion of the cow, paragraph 61) [a quote
from the Koran; the brackets appear in the original version].... Generations
of Jews have been bearing a sinister hatred for the entire
human race. The calamities which befell them: ... (here the writer
of the leaflet outlines a long list of disasters sustained by generations
of Jewish people throughout history from their Diaspora in Babylon to the
Holocaust, all of which were punishment from above). |
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A leaflet entitled “Jewish
hatred of the human race” found in the
office of the Tulkarm “charity committee”, identified with Hamas. |
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