The Doctrine of Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas’ “Expert on Jewish Affairs”

Dr. Uri Rossett

Overview^[1]

• Antisemitism has been at the core of Hamas’ ideology since its establishment in 1988, reflected both in the Hamas Charter (1988) and in the movement’s education system.
• One of the leading representatives of Hamas’ antisemitism is Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar, one of the movement’s founders and its senior spokesmen, who is Hamas’ self-styled “expert on Jewish affairs.” Over the years, he has referred to the Jews in his writings and statements using antisemitic motifs to justify the need to expel the Jews from “Palestine.”
• The book Hatred of the Jews – A Historical Legacy, which al-Zahar published in 2020 and copies of which were found by IDF forces during the war in the Gaza Strip, summarizes the core elements of his antisemitic doctrine. He described the Jews as a base, greedy, immoral, cruel, corrupt and treacherous, using blood libels and conspiracies based on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
• Al-Zahar also justified the Holocaust, while claiming that close ties existed between Nazi Germany and the “Zionists,” stemming from their “identical interests.”
• Since Hamas is aware that making antisemitic remarks harms it in the international arena, the movement seeks to downplay its views when dealing with foreigners, especially Western foreigners. A document the IDF brought back from the Gaza Strip had instructions for the “Palestinian spokesperson in the world,” one of which was a prohibition against the use of anti-Jewish expressions and an emphasis on the struggle against the “Zionist occupier” and not against Judaism or the Jews.
• Despite the attempt to market a different face to the international community, the doctrine presented by Mahmoud al-Zahar over the years, and published only in Arabic, is evidence of the Hamas leadership’s antisemitism. It dehumanizes Jews and provided inspiration for the atrocities committed during the Hamas terrorist attack and massacre on October 7, 2023.

Mahmoud al-Zahar and the Jews

• Over the years, Mahmoud al-Zahar has repeatedly related to the Jews in his writings, interviews and speeches and his antisemitic statements “justified” the desire to expel the Jews from “Palestine:”
  • Al-Zahar’s earliest book about the Jews was No Future [for Jews] Among the Nations, published in Algeria in 2008, and is regarded as a response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s book A Place Under the Sun, published in 1995. Al-Zahar’s thesis is Jews were a foreign implant and one after another, countries around the world them, and he used quotations from the Qur’an to justify the killing of Jews and as proof that Zionism was destined to disappear because it “has no future among the nations.” A copy of the book was also found aboard the Mavi Marmara flotilla intercepted by the IDF in 2010.

• • In a speech broadcast on Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV on November 5, 2010, al-Zahar reviewed the long history of the murder of the Jews and their expulsion from European countries. He claimed that the Jews’ [allegedly] negative traits, such as indulging in murder, theft and treachery, were at the root of the treatment they received, and claiming as “proof” that the elimination of the State of Israel and the expulsion of the Jews from “Palestine” is historically inevitable. He claimed that Pharaoh expelled the Jews from Egypt “because they shed Egyptian blood and conspired against them together with their enemies;” and that in 1253 the French expelled the Jews because they “sucked and spilled the blood of the French, slaughtered them, stole their property, and conspired against them…”. Al-Zahar’s conclusion was that the Palestinians “have no less power or honor than those nations that uprooted and expelled them. We are about to expel them. We have learned the lesson. You have no place among us and you [the Jews] have no future among the nations. You are about to disappear, and we are about to return crowned with victory.”
  • In speeches delivered by al-Zahar in September 2014 during memorial ceremonies for the shaheeds of Operation Protective Edge, he reiterated his claim that the Jews brought upon themselves the expulsions and persecutions they suffered throughout history. He expressed “understanding” for the killing of Jews by Nazi Germany, claiming that Hitler killed them “because they were German Jews who betrayed their country…and collaborated with the enemy.” He added that “such things are directed at the center of historical evil, which the entire world hates,” and declared that “the final uprooting will be carried out [within] the war of the ‘Promise of the End of Days’ by your hands, with the help of Almighty Allah…”.^[2]

Al-Zahar’s Doctrine as It Appears in Hatred of the Jews – A Historical Legacy

• In 2020 Hatred of the Jews – A Historical Legacy, 138 pages, written by al-Zahar, was published in the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian ministry of culture as part of the national program for Palestinian libraries. In October 2022, a Hamas conference was held in Gaza to mark its publication, at which al-Zahar was represented as head of the Palestinian principles [sic] commission and a member of the Hamas political bureau.

• According to the book’s introduction, what had piqued al-Zahar’s curiosity was the fact that the Jews had been repeatedly expelled from various countries throughout history, and the objective of the book was to explain why. His conclusion was that the Jews’ [alleged] hatred of anyone who was not Jewish was a historical legacy, as was the world’s hatred of the Jews.

• In writing the book, al-Zahar relied primarily on Arab sources, but also on works by Western authors known for their anti-Jewish or anti-Israeli views, including Roger Garaudy, a French philosopher who in his later years moved closer to Islam and became a Holocaust denier, and Israel Shahak, a professor of organic chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Holocaust survivor, known as a harsh critic of the State of Israel and Orthodox Judaism.
• The book describes the hostility toward the Jews during different historical periods, including antiquity, the Middle Ages and the modern era, and focuses on their status in the Western world, while the discussion of their status in the Arab world is relatively limited. He alleges the main reason for this hostility as what he describes as the “unchanging Jewish character:”
• According to al-Zahar, the Jews are “despicable” and for them material interest prevails over all else, which explains how they live among non-Jewish peoples and collaborate with tyrannical rulers against their own people. It also explains their desire to control the strongest factors in society, money and weapons, and [allegedly] betrayed the peoples among whom they lived in favor of new foreign conquerors. This lack of loyalty was also manifested after World War II, when they transferred their loyalty from Europe, especially Britain, to the United States.
  • According to Al-Zahar, for the Jews charging interest is the cornerstone of the economy, since it is the only way to accumulate money without effort or risk. That also applies to their activity in financial institutions, such as money markets, stock exchanges, currency and gold trading, and international trade, which are their top priority. The Jews, he claims, despise productive labor such as agriculture, saying, “Why should I exert myself if I can obtain what others produce?” He alleges that according to their holy writings, Jews are prohibited from charging other Jews interest, but they make their living by lending money at the highest possible rate of interest to non-Jews, which over history has made them easy prey for popular anger, especially among the middle classes.
  • According to al-Zahar, “over time, greed became their greatest characteristic. Profit and loss became the central axis of Jewish life at the expense of principles and morality. That drove the Jews to use any means to achieve profit, even theft.” He claims the Jews worship money and are miserly, stealing from other Jews is considered a moral offense, but from non-Jews it is permitted.
  • According to al-Zahar, the Jews use bribery to advance their interests. For example, Harry Truman was considered to have no chance of winning the presidential election until a Zionist-Jewish went to his campaign train with millions of dollars in a suitcase. Truman won the election thanks to Jewish money, and in return he recognized the State of Israel. Jews also bribed the Christian spiritual leadership, including priests and monks, including using their daughters as bribes given to men in power, kings and ministers.
  • According to al-Zahar, Judaism is not an inclusive religion, and religious laws forced the Jews to be hostile toward everything called “gentile,” whether through direct hatred or constant suspicion, until it became normal Jewish behavior. From the Jewish perspective, the world was originally created for them alone, and only they are entitled to its resources, there is a “wall of fire” between the Jews and the rest of the nations of the world, and they believe in their right to rule the world. The Jews see themselves as the chosen people, superior to the rest of humanity. Another Jew is the only person worthy of forming a relationship with and drawing close to. The Jews believe that humanity is divided into two categories, themselves and the gentiles who are destined for destruction, and the Jews have the right to rule over them.
  • According to al-Zahar, the Jews acted against all the peoples among whom they lived, and in response suffered persecutions and massacres. That allows them to present themselves as eternal victims and to trade on their suffering to their own advantage, as in the case of the world’s support for their takeover of “Palestine.”
  • According to al-Zahar, the Jews lack literary and artistic taste. Works of art and literature, and human creativity in general, are expressions of the ascent of man and cultural development, and are usually mobilized for noble purposes. But when the Jews control the media, culture is presented in a way that serves their goals. The Jews played a prominent role in modern culture and used their power to spread extreme Zionist ideology, which paved the way for the occupation of “Palestine.” The world of creation, including cinema, reinforced the image of Jews as “persecuted saints” to gain support primarily among Christians in Western countries. Al-Zahar cited the Oscar-winning Hollywood epic Ben-Hur as an example.
  • According to al-Zahar, the Jews’ approach toward science is similar to their approach to the arts. Until the end of the 18th century, Jews were interested only in religious education, since the study of any of the sciences, arithmetic, geography and history was forbidden. Later, some of them, mainly secular Jews, believed that knowledge of science could contribute to their advancement, and they began to specialize in science. However, they did not place this knowledge at the service of humanity, but used it only to serve Jewish interests.
  • According to al-Zahar, Biblical stories teach about Jewish cruelty, such as the conquest of Jericho and other cities that included the massacre of men, women, children and the elderly, the destruction of livestock and property, and the burning of cities. Al-Zahar accepts blood libels as established fact, according to which Jews kill and use the blood of Christian children for ritual purposes, and elaborates at length on a series of blood libels (which he claims number more than 300 cases) from around the world from the Middle Ages to the modern period. The last case described in the book allegedly occurred in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1983, in which Christian children were abducted during Passover. Al-Zahar claims the case was closed for various reasons “despite the fact that the incident bore Jewish religious characteristics.” He asks, “After all these examples from different historical periods and from distant geographical regions have been presented in detail, is it not the right of the peoples who lost their infants and young sons to hate those who murdered the innocent and to take revenge on them?”
  • According to al-Zahar, as a result of Jewish social patterns, particularly endogamy, hereditary diseases such as diabetes, and nervous and mental illnesses became prominent among the Jews. In addition, “large ears and hooked noses” were observed.

Nazi Germany and the Jews

• Throughout the book, al-Zahar retells the expulsion of Jews from various countries around the world throughout history, and Nazi Germany is given prominence. According to al-Zahar, Jews lived within Germany for many years and “sucked the blood” of its people. When an opportunity arose in the 1930s for cooperation with the West against Germany, they did so with no pangs of conscience. He cited a 1934 quote he attributed to Ze’ev Jabotinsky, according to which “the Jews must consider the final destruction of the Germans.” Only after the Nazis lost faith in the loyalty of the Jews to the state did they decide to destroy them. Al-Zahar compared the Germans’ treatment of Jews to the Americans’ treatment of Japanese citizens in the United States who were interned in camps during World War II.
• However, al-Zahar argued that Nazism and Zionism had common interests, and that there were Zionist Jews in Germany who supported the Nazi regime, assuming it would lead to mass immigration to “Palestine.” He also noted support from leaders of the underground movements in Mandatory Palestine for the fascist regimes in Spain, Italy and Germany, claiming that in 1941 Yitzhak Shamir, then commander of the Lehi underground and later prime minister of Israel, called for cooperation with Germany against the British. According to al-Zahar, Zionism cooperated with Germany, and there was no extermination of Jews in Germany until 1943.
• Since only a minority of Jews cooperated with the Nazis in pursuit of establishing a state in “Palestine,” while most Jews in Europe and worldwide fought against Germany, al-Zahar asked, “What could be expected of the Germans who faced the Jews during a war, should they have distinguished among them or treated them as a single unit?” implying that al-Zahar agrees with the Nazi policy of exterminating the Jews.

Al-Zahar’s Antisemitism as a Facet of Hamas Ideology

• Antisemitism has been at the core of Hamas ideology since its establishment. The Hamas Charter (1988) is unapologetically antisemitic, using myths from classical European antisemitism, with explicit reference to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and Islamic sources such as the Qur’an and the Hadiths. The Jews are presented in a negative light and as planning to control the entire world by taking over international bodies such as the UN and the media, and organizations like the Freemasons and the Rotary.

• The charter places responsibility for the major ills in human history on the Jews, including revolutions (claiming the Jews were behind the French and Communist revolutions), and responsibility for the two World Wars (“no war takes place anywhere without their hands behind it”). The Jews are described as identifying women as the “weak link” in Muslim society and therefore attempt to influence them to stray from the path of Islam. The Jews are also portrayed as “behaving like Nazi war criminals,” and extorting their victims.
• The charter quotes the well-known Hadith of the “stone and the tree” regarding the Jews, stating, “The hour [Judgment Day] will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and the Muslims kill them, and until the Jew hides behind stones and trees, and the stones and trees say, ‘O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding [behind me], come and kill him.'” Antisemitic concepts are a significant part of the Hamas education system, from kindergartens to its Islamic University in Gaza, where many of the movement’s leaders and operatives of its military wing studied.^[3]
• However, Hamas tends to equivocate and blur antisemitic messages or remove them entirely when they might harm its interests. Thus antisemitism did not appear in Hamas’ election platform for the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, and the movement’s English-language spokespeople avoid publicly making antisemitic statements.
• Hamas equivocation can be found in a training booklet entitled “Guide for the Palestinian Spokesperson in the World” from 2022, which was brought back to Israel by the IDF during the Gaza Strip War:

• • “The media spokesperson seeks to achieve media interest in favor of his cause, themes and positions. He acts to gain positive media attention ” (page 5).
  • “During persuasive discourse or efforts to mobilize solidarity and support, it is appropriate to rely on shared values and avoid incorporating sensitive issues which the target audience might find objectionable. For example, it is not appropriate to include Islamic religious references when addressing an audience that is not predominantly Muslim. In addition, one must be aware of the great sensitivity and heavy burden accompanying certain concepts in the Western world, such as references to Nazi practices and ‘the Holocaust'” (page 7).
  • “Avoid incorrect or stereotypical use of terms, such as saying ‘the Jews’ or ‘the Jewish lobby,’ since our stated problem is with colonial forces and their supporters…. It is important to avoid using expressions with strongly negative connotations in persuasive discourse, such as ‘conspiracy,’ and it is not appropriate to use stereotypical expressions such as ‘the Jewish conspiracy’…. The use of fabricated or offensive texts, such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, harms Palestinian discourse, presents it as racist and extremist, and gives it a weak image that does not correspond to the justice and clarity [sic] of the cause.”

One should avoid stereotypical mistakes in the use of terms, for example the expressions “the Jews” or “the Jewish lobby,” since our sated problem is with the colonial forces and those who support them. Likewise, the use of the expression “son of a Jewish woman” in the context of condemning the Zionist occupation is inappropriate, because there are Jews, both men and women, around the world who are peace-seeking and support the rights of the Palestinian people. The inclusion of the term “Jews” encompasses Jews who were not involved in colonialism in Palestine or in supporting this colonial entity, and therefore our language must remain clear, that our problem is limited solely to the Zionist colonial project, and that we have no issue with the religious or national identity of any person in the world.

It is important to avoid using expressions with a negative connotation in persuasive communication, such as “conspiracy.” Likewise, it is inappropriate to use stereotypical expressions such as “the Jewish conspiracy,” or to adopt statements promoted by racist groups which do not believe in rights and justice, such as “Jewish control of the media.” Such expressions imply that they are based on a principled, sweeping position toward a religious-ethnic group, and thus deviate from the nature of the Palestinian issue, which is directed solely against occupation and aggression. Likewise, reliance on forged and distorted texts such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion harms Palestinian discourse, places it in the same camp as racist, Nazi and fascist discourse, and gives it a fragile image that does not befit the truth of the clearly just cause. It also serves the occupation’s propaganda, which exploits such missteps to cast them arbitrarily and collectively over the entire Palestinian discourse.

• One of the difficulties in promoting the Palestinian cause in the global media is “the influence of the historical suffering of Jews in Europe.” It was noted that statements such as “historical obligation toward the Jews” appeared in Europe, mainly in Germany, and to justify “unjust bias toward the Zionist entity” (page 25).
• The guide included a glossary of terms which should not be used and suggestions for alternatives which “will not cause harm.” For example, one should not say “killing the Jews” but rather “killing the Zionist occupier.”
• In contrast to the themes marketed in external discourse, the doctrine of Mahmoud al-Zahar for internal use detailed and delivered only in Arabic, shows the antisemitic views prevalent in Hamas. Those views, in which the dehumanization of Jews plays a central role, provided inspiration for atrocities committed during the terrorist attack and massacre in the Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip and in the western Negev on October 7, 2023.^[4]

Appendix A: Portrait of Mahmoud al-Zahar^[5]

• Dr. Mahmoud Khaled al-Zahar, aka Abu Khaled, was born in the al-Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City in 1945. He completed his secondary education in Gaza and studied medicine at Ain Shams University in Cairo. He graduated in 1971 and then completed five years of specialization in surgery.

• He worked in hospitals in Gaza and Khan Yunis, but was dismissed in 1982 because he led a tax revolt against Israel. Between 1981 and 1985 he was the chairman of the Gazan physicians’ association. In 1985, he began lecturing at the Islamic University in Gaza, which became a Hamas stronghold.
• One of the founders of the Hamas movement, al-Zahar is one of its leaders in the Gaza Strip and a member of the political bureau. He was foreign minister in the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government under Isma’il Haniyeh between March 2006 and March 2007 and headed Hamas’ Change and Reform faction in the Palestinian Legislative Council.
• In 1988, al-Zahar held meetings with Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who sought to explore possibilities for establishing a new Palestinian leadership. In 1988, he was detained by Israeli security forces and spent six months in detention. He was among the 415 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operatives deported by Israel to Marj al-Zohour in south Lebanon in December 1992. In 1996, he was arrested by Palestinian Authority security forces together with other senior Hamas and PIJ figures. In September 2003, his eldest son Khaled was killed during an IDF attempted targeted killing of al-Zahar following two suicide bombings in Israel. Another son was killed by IDF forces together with 12 other Hamas operatives in January 2008.

   
Right: al-Zahar (left) in Marj al-Zohour (Ilkha, December 18, 2025).
Left: al-Zahar in uniform after Operation Pillar of Defense (Medina News, May 4, 2013)

• In November 2023, the United States and Britain added al-Zahar to their lists of terrorist operatives and imposed sanctions on him. According to the United States Treasury Department, al-Zahar spoke publicly on behalf of Hamas, including in official interviews, threatened violence against Jewish civilians and emphasized Hamas’ commitment to the destruction of Israel. As a Hamas representative, he also acknowledged and thanked Iran for its support of Hamas (United States Treasury Department website, December 14, 2023).
• Since the Hamas attack and massacre on October 7, 2023 and the war in the Gaza Strip, al-Zahar has gone underground and has not appeared publicly. Only in February 2025 was the first picture of him in a mosque made public (X account of Muaz Hassan, February 22, 2025). Meanwhile, senior Hamas figure Mushir al-Masri claimed in his first interview since the beginning of the war that al-Zahar was “in good condition” and denied claims that Israel had eliminated him (al-Jazeera Mubasher, February 22, 2025).

• In addition to his antisemitic statements, al-Zahar also called for the destruction of Israel and issued harsh statements against many Western countries:
  • He said that continuing the “armed struggle”^[6] against Israel was the correct choice and that Hamas had no intention of negotiating with it (Newsweek, August 30, 2005). He promised that Hamas would not abandon the “path of jihad” and the “project of the shaheeds,” and claimed that the Qur’an also stated that “there is no future for the Zionists among us” (al-Quds Channel, October 27, 2010).
  • In speeches and interviews in preparation for the Palestinian Council elections in January 2006, al-Zahar said that if Hamas won, it would establish a state based on sharia (Islamic law) and be part of the Arab and Islamic nation. He said that in the Palestinian sharia state, women dancing with men would be prohibited (“If a man holds a woman’s hand and dances with her before people, is this the way to serve the national cause?”), and the rights of the LGBT community would also be denied (“a minority of mentally and morally deviant people”) (Ilaf, October 1–2, 2005).
  • He accused the West of “immorality” and therefore having no right to criticize Hamas for the way it governed the Gaza Strip. He accused Europe of licentiousness and hypocrisy, saying, “You accept the homosexual lifestyle, and you still criticize us.” He claimed Europeans used women “like animals,” they had one husband and thousands of friends, and “you do not know who the real father of your children is, because of the way you treat women” (Reuters, October 28, 2010).
  • He was among the first in Hamas to use the term “the battle of the promise of the second time” to describe the next campaign against Israel, which would be decisive. In a speech at a ceremony held in memory of Hamas Gaza District Police shaheeds in September 2014 after Operation Protective Edge, he said, “If Hamas transfers part of its power to the West Bank, the Israeli occupation will not be able to withstand it, and we will be able to decide to wage the battle of the promise of the second time at a time that no one can imagine.” He added that “after the last campaign, we knew very well how we could liberate Palestine, and we knew how to strike every centimeter of Palestine with our own hands and our own strength.” He also declared, “There are those who say Hamas wants to establish an Islamic emirate in the Gaza Strip, but we say to them that we will build an Islamic state in all of Palestine” (Palestinian al-Hadath, October 21, 2014).^[7]

^[1] Click https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en to subscribe and receive the ITIC's daily updates as well as its other publications.
^[2] For further information, see the October 2014 ITIC report, At memorial ceremonies for Gazans killed in Operation Protective Edge, Mahmoud al-Zahar reiterated his vicious anti-Semitic theory, intended to justify attacks on Jews and the destruction of the State of Israel.
^[3] For further information, see the May 2006 ITIC report, "The Hamas Charter (1988), https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/18894/; the February 2004 report, https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/18475/; the April 2008 report, Contemporary Arab-Muslim anti-Semitism, its Significance and Implications (Updated to March 2008) ; and the November 2024 report, Antisemitism in the Arab-Muslim World during the Gaza Strip War.
^[4] For further information, see the October 2025 ITIC report, Instructions Given by Yahya al-Sinwar for the October 7, 2023 Attack and Massacre and the January 2024 report, Documents brought back from the Gaza Strip indicate that Hamas premeditated its atrocities against Israelis and to kidnap and maltreat them.
^[5] For further information, see February 2017 report, Elections to the Hamas Political Bureau in the Gaza Strip: Overview and Significance and To Know Hamas by Shlomi Eldar 2012, Hebrew only, Keter Publishers, currently unavailable in English.
^[6] Terrorist attacks and violence.
^[7] For further information, see the March 2025 ITIC report, Hamas’ strategy to destroy Israel: from theory into practice, as seen in captured documents

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