Friday, June 14, 2013

Arab/Muslim Attitudes Toward Israel


Arab/Muslim Attitudes Toward Israel

By Mitchell G. Bard

The desire for peaceful relations between Jews and Arabs sometimes leads people to overlook public comments by Arab officials and media publications that are often incendiary and sometimes outright anti-Semitic. Frequently, more moderate tones are adopted when speaking to Western audiences, but more accurate and heartfelt views are expressed in Arabic to the speaker's constituents. The following is just a tiny sample of some of the remarks that have been made regarding Israel and the Jews. They are included here because they demonstrate the level of hostility and true beliefs of many Arabs and Muslims. Of course, not all Arabs and Muslims subscribe to these views, but the examples are not random, they are beliefs held by important officials and disseminated by major media. They are also included because one of the lessons of the Holocaust was that people of good will are often unwilling to believe that people who threaten evil will in fact carry out their malevolent intentions.

Anti-Semitism

“They [the Jews] try to kill the principle of religions with the same mentality that they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Mohammed.”
— Syrian President Bashar Assad at May 5 welcoming ceremony for the Pope Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, May 6, 2001


“It is not a mistake that the Koran warns us of the hatred of the Jews and put them at the top of the list of the enemies of Islam. Today the Jews recruit the world against the Muslims and use all kinds of weapons. They are plundering the dearest place to the Muslims, after Mecca and Medina and threaten the place the Muslims have faced at first when they prayed and the third holiest city after Mecca and Medina. They want to erect their temple on that place....The Muslims are ready to sacrifice their lives and blood to protect the Islamic nature of Jerusalem and al-Aksa!”
— Sheikh Hian Al-Adrisi, Excerpt of address in the al-Aksa mosque, September 29, 2000


“The Jews are Jews, whether Labour or Likud, the Jews are Jews. They do not have any moderates or any advocates of peace. They are all liars. They are the ones who must be butchered and killed. As Allah the Almighty said: 'Fight them.' Allah will torture them by your hands and will humiliate them and will help you to overcome them, and will relieve the minds of the believers. ... Our people must unite in one trench, and receive armaments from the Palestinian leadership to confront the Jews. ... Have no mercy on the Jews, no matter where they are, in any country. Fight them, wherever you are. Whenever you meet them, kill them. Wherever you are, kill those Jews and those Americans who are like them — and those who stand with them — they are all in one trench, against the Arabs and the Muslims — because they established Israel here, in the beating heart of the Arab world, in Palestine. They created it in order that it be the outpost of their civilization — and the vanguard of their army, and to be the sword of the West and the Crusaders, hanging over the necks of the Muslim monotheists, the Muslims in this land. They wanted the Jews to be the spearhead for them...”
— Dr Ahmad Abu-Halabia, a member of the "Fatwa Council" appointed by the Palestinian Authority and the
former acting Rector of the Islamic University in Gaza,
delivered in the Zayd bin Sultan Nahyan mosque in Gaza
on October 13, 2000, the day after the lynching of the Israeli reservists in Ramallah, and carried live on Palestinian television


“Thanks to Hitler, blessed memory, who on behalf of the Palestinians, revenged in advance, against the most vile criminals on the face of the earth. Although we do have a complaint against him for his revenge on them was not enough.”
— Columnist Ahmad Ragab Al-Akhbar (Egypt), April 18, 2001


“All weapons must be aimed at the Jews, at the enemies of Allah...whom the Koran describes as monkeys and pigs, worshippers of the calf and idol worshippers. Allah shall make the Moslem rule over the Jew, we will blow them up in Hadera, we will blow them up in Tel Aviv and in Netanya in the righteousness of Allah against this rif-raff.....We will enter Jerusalem as conquerors, and Jaffa as conquerors, and Haifa as conquerors and Ashkelon as conquerors...we bless all those who educate their children to jihad and to Martyrdom, blessing be he who shot a bullet into the head of a Jew.”
— Sermon broadcast on Palestinian Authority television, August 3, 2001


“All signs unequivocally prove that the conflict between the Jews and the Muslims is an eternal on-going conflict, even if it stops for short intervals.... This conflict resembles the conflict between man and Satan.... This is the fate of the Muslim nation, and beyond that the fate of all the nations of the world, to be tormented by this nation [the Jews]. The fate of the Palestinian people is to struggle against the Jews on behalf of the Arab peoples, the Islamic peoples and the peoples of the entire worlds.”
— Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda quoted in The New Republic Online, October 30, 2001


“O God, the Jews have transgressed all limits in their tyranny. O God, shake the ground under their feet, pour torture on them, and destroy all of them.”
— Sheikh Abd-al-Bari al-Thubayt, June 7, 2002, sermon at the Holy Mosque of Medina, broadcast on official Saudi television


“The Jewish nation, it is known, from the dawn of history, from the time Allah created them, lives by scheme and deceit.”
— PA Communications Minister, Imud Falouji Palestinian television, August 8, 2002


“We know that the Jews have manipulated the Sept. 11 incidents and turned American public opinion against Arabs and Muslims....We still ask ourselves: Who has benefited from Sept. 11 attacks? I think they (the Jews) were the protagonists of such attacks.”
— Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef in Assyasah (Kuwait) translation from Saudi magazine 'Ain-Al-Yaqin, November 29, 2002


“They succeeded in gaining control in most of the [world's] most powerful states, and they — a tiny community — became a world power. But 1.3 billion Muslims must not be defeated by a few million Jews. A way must be found....The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews are in control of the world via their proxies. They lead others to fight and die for them....If we are weak, no one will support us. The Israelis respect only the strong, and we must therefore all unite.”
— Malaysian Prime Minister Mahatir Mohammad at the opening of the Organization of Islamic States summit October 16, 2003


“O God, strengthen Islam and Muslims, humiliate infidelity and infidels. O God, destroy your enemies, the Jewish and crusader enemies of Islam.”
— Shaykh Jamal Shakir Sermon from King Abdallah mosque in Amman Amman Jordan Television Channel 1 in Arabic March 5, 2004


“Here are the Jews today taking revenge for their grandfathers and ancestors, the sons of apes and pigs. Here are the extremist Jews demanding their rights. Some extremists even demand their rights in Medina....This is the extremist tendency of Jews. They are extremists and terrorists who deserve death, while we deserve life, since we have a just cause.”
— Shaykh Ibrahim Mudayris
Gaza Palestine Satellite TV (official PA station) March 12, 2004


“The Prophet said: the Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: oh servant of Allah, oh Muslim this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!. Why is there this malice? Because there are none who love the Jews on the face of the earth: not man, not rock, and not tree everything hates them. They destroy everything they destroy the trees and destroy the houses. Everything wants vengeance on the Jews, on these pigs on the face of the earth, and the day of our victory, Allah willing, will come..”
— Shaykh Ibrahim Mudayris
Palestine Authority TV September 10, 2004


“We are waging this cruel war with the brothers of the monkeys and pigs, the Jews and the sons of Zion The Jews will fight you and you will subjugate them. Until the Jew will stand behind the tree and rock. And the tree and rock will say: oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”
— Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi
Palestine Authority TV September 12, 2004


“The Zionist attempts to transmit dangerous diseases like AIDS through exports to Arab countries.”
— Al-Manar (Hizballah TV)
November 23, 2004


“The Jews are a cancer spreading in the body of the Arab nation and the Islamic nation, a cancer that has spread and reached the Arab institutions, the villages and the refugee camps.”
— Sermon by Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris
Palestine Authority TV January 7, 2005


“The Jews are the cancer spreading all over the world...the Jews are a virus like AIDS hitting humankind...Jews are responsible for all wars and conflicts....”
— Sermon by Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris
Palestine Authority TV
May 13, 2005

Blood Libel

“The Talmud says that if a Jew does not drink every year the blood of a non-Jewish man, he will be damned for eternity.”
— Saudi Arabian delegate Marouf al-Dawalibi
before the UN Human Rights Commission conference on religious tolerance December 5, 1984


“During this holiday [Purim], the Jew must prepare very special pastries, the filling of which is not only costly and rare –– it cannot be found at all on the local and international markets....For this holiday, the Jewish people must obtain human blood so that their clerics can prepare the holiday pastries....Before I go into the details, I would like to clarify that the Jews' spilling human blood to prepare pastry for their holidays is a well-established fact, historically and legally, all throughout history. This was one of the main reasons for the persecution and exile that were their lot in Europe and Asia at various times....during the holiday, the Jews wear carnival-style masks and costumes and overindulge in drinking alcohol, prostitution, and adultery.....”
— Dr. Umayma Ahmad Al-Jalahma of King Faysal University Saudi government daily Al-Riyadh, March 10, 2002


“Christian Europe showed enmity toward the Jews when it transpired that their rabbis craftily hunt anyone walking alone, [tempting] him to enter their house of worship. Then they take his blood to use for baked goods for their holidays, as part of their ritual.”
— Columnist Dr. Muhammad bin S’ad Al-Shwey’ir, Al-Jazirah (Saudi Arabia), September 6, 2002


“With the establishment of the State of Israel, the entire Muslim nation was lost because Israel is a cancer that spread in the body of the Islamic nation; because the Jews are a virus similar to AIDS, from which the entire world is suffering.”
— Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris PA TV sermon, May 13, 2005


“1883, about 150 French children were murdered in a horrible way in the suburbs of Paris, before the Jewish Passover holiday. Later research showed that the Jews had killed them and taken their blood. This event caused riots in Paris back then, and the French government found itself under pressure. A similar incident took place in London, when many English children were killed by Jewish rabbis.”
— Iranian political analyst Hasan Hanizadeh Jaam-e Jam 2 TV (Iran), December 20, 2005

Fabrications of Abuses

“[Israeli doctors] use Palestinian patients… for experimental medicines and training new doctors.”
— PA Health Minister, Riyadh Al-Za'anoon Al-Ayam, July 25, 1998


"Israel carries out a clear policy of annihilating our people and destroying our national economy by smuggling spoiled foodstuff… not fit for human consumption, into PA territories…. Israel did not change its strategy, which aims to kill and destroy our people, rather it began counting on means other than bombs, missiles and planes. These measures are distributing and smuggling spoiled foodstuffs… into the PA territories."
— PA Deputy Minister of Supplies, Abd Al-Hamid Al-Qudsi
Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, August 22, 1998


“Our people have been subjected to the daily and extensive use of poisonous gas by the Israeli forces, which has led to an increase in cancer cases among women and children.”
— Suha Arafat, wife of Yasser Arafat November 11, 1999, during a Gaza appearance with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton

Holocaust Denial

“...Lies surfaced about Jews being murdered here and there, and the Holocaust. And, of course, they are all lies and unfounded claims. No Chelmno, no Dachau, no Auschwitz! [They] were disinfection sites... They began to publicize in their propaganda that they were persecuted, murdered and exterminated... Committees acted here and there to establish this entity [Israel-Ed.], this foreign entity, implanted as a cancer in our country, where our fathers lived, where we live, and where our children after us will live. They always portrayed themselves as victims, and they made a Center for Heroism and Holocaust. Whose heroism? Whose Holocaust? Heroism is our nation's, the holocaust was against our people... We were the victims, but we shall not remain victims forever...” [emphasis added]
— Dr. Issam Sissalem, history lecturer, Islamic University Gaza, PA TV broadcast, November 29, 2000


“The issue of the holocaust rises again. It defies disappearing over its half-century because the Zionist propaganda has converted it into a means to produce political and economic benefit, besides exploiting it for the advancement of occupation and settlement...”
“A recently published book by an American researcher, discusses the holocaust. Employing scientific and chemical evidence, it proves that the figure of six million Jews cremated in the Nazi Auschwitz camps is a lie for propaganda, as the most spacious of the vaults in the camp could not have held even one percent of that number.”
— Hiri Manzour in the official Palestinian Authority daily,
Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 13, 2001


“One of the Jews' evil deeds is what has come to be called 'the Holocaust,' that is, the slaughter of the Jews by Nazism. However, revisionist [historians] have proven that this crime, carried out against some of the Jews, was planned by the Jews' leaders, and was part of their policy...These are the Jews against whom we fight, oh beloved of Allah.”
— Sermon broadcast on Palestinian Authority television, September 21, 2001


“Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces...Although we don't accept this claim.”
— Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, December 14, 2001

Peace

“Unless the Palestine problem is settled, we shall have difficulty in protecting and safeguarding the Jews in the Arab world.”
— Syrian delegate, Faris el-Khouri, New York Times, February 19, 1947


“The Arab world is not in a compromising mood. It's likely, Mr. Horowitz, that your plan is rational and logical, but the fate of nations is not decided by rational logic. Nations never concede; they fight. You won't get anything by peaceful means or compromise. You can, perhaps, get something, but only by the force of your arms. We shall try to defeat you. I am not sure we'll succeed, but we'll try. We were able to drive out the Crusaders, but on the other hand we lost Spain and Persia. It may be that we shall lose Palestine. But it's too late to talk of peaceful solutions.”
— Arab League Secretary Azzam Pasha, September 16, 1947


“[A]ll our efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Palestine problem have failed. The only way left for us is war. I will have the pleasure and honor to save Palestine.”
— Transjordan's King Abdullah, April 26, 1948


“The representative of the Jewish Agency told us yesterday that they were not the attackers, that the Arabs had begun the fighting. We did not deny this. We told the whole world that we were going to fight.”
— Jamal Husseini before the Security Council, April 16, 1948


“It will be a war of annihilation. It will be a momentous massacre in history that will be talked about like the massacres of the Mongols or the Crusades.”
— Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League,
October 11, 1947


“I am not solely fighting against Israel itself. My task is to deliver the Arab world from destruction through Israel's intrigue, which has its roots abroad. Our hatred is very strong. There is no sense in talking about peace with Israel. There is not even the smallest place for negotiations.”
— Egyptian President Nasser, October 14, 1956


“Our forces are now entirely ready not only to repulse the aggression, but to initiate the act of liberation itself, and to explode the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland. The Syrian army, with its finger on the trigger, is united....I, as a military man, believe that the time has come to enter into a battle of annihilation.”
— Syrian Defense Minister Hafez Assad, May 20, 1967


“Arab policy at this stage has but two objectives. The first, the elimination of the traces of the 1967 aggression through an Israeli withdrawal from all the territories it occupied that year. The second objective is the elimination of the traces of the 1948 aggression, by the means of the elimination of the State of Israel itself. This is, however, as yet an abstract, undefined objective, and some of us have erred in commencing the latter step before the former.”
— Mohammed Heikal, a Sadat confidant and editor of the semi-official Al-Ahram, February 25, 1971


“The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but, instead, they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland, and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live.”
— PLO spokesman Mahmud Abbas ("Abu Mazen"), Falastin a-Thaura, March 1976


“Saddam, you hero, attack Israel with chemical weapons.”
— Palestinians marching in support of Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, (Associated Press, August 12, 1990


“Let us work together until we achieve victory and regain liberated Jerusalem.”
— Yasser Arafat, Baghdad Republic of Iraq Radio Network, November 16, 1991


“I have always rejected normalizing relations with (Israeli) women....They always invite me to their functions and I categorically refuse because I hate Israel.”
— Suha Arafat, wife of Yasser Arafat, Saudi Arabian women's magazine, Sayidaty, quoted by AP, May 3, 2001


“We will not give up a single grain of soil in Palestine, from Haifa, and Jaffa, and Acre, and Mulabbas [Petah Tikvah] and Salamah, and Majdal [Ashkelon], and all the land, and Gaza, and the West Bank....”
— Dr Ahmad Abu-Halabia, a member of the "Fatwa Council" appointed by the Palestinian Authority and the
former acting Rector of the Islamic University in Gaza,
delivered in the Zayd bin Sultan Nahyan mosque in Gaza
on October 13, 2000, the day after the lynching of the Israeli reservists in Ramallah, and carried live on Palestinian television


“We will not arrest the sons of our people in order to appease Israel. Let our people rest assured that this won't happen.”
— Chief of the PA Preventive Security in the West Bank, Jebril Rajoub, Islamic Association for Palestine, June 9, 2001


“...Allah willing, this unjust state...Israel will be erased; this unjust state, the United States will be erased; this unjust state, Britain will be erased...Blessings to whoever waged Jihad for the sake of Allah...Blessings to whoever put a belt of explosives on his body or on his sons' and plunged into the midst of the Jews...”
— Sermon by Sheikh Ibrahim Madhi a few days after Yasser Arafat's cease-fire declaration PA Television, June 8, 2001


“We said from the beginning that there is no ceasefire for the settlers.”
— Fatah leader, Ziad ibu-Aid, International Herald Tribune, June 20, 2001


“Didn't we throw mud in the face of Bill Clinton, who dared to propose a state with some adjustments? Were we honest about what we did? Were we right in what we did? No, we were not. After two years of violence, we are now calling for what we rejected.”
— Nabil Amr, ex-minister in the PA cabinet, Quoted in the Jerusalem Report, October 21, 2002


“Just as Ramallah, Gaza, Nablus, and Jenin are Palestinian cities, so are Haifa, Nazareth, Jaffa, Ramle, Lod, Beersheba, Safed, and others Palestinian cities....The Zionist Jews are foreigners in this land. They have no right to live or settle in it. They should go somewhere else in the world to establish their state and their false entity...They must leave their homes...We do not believe in so-called 'peace with Israel' because peace cannot be made with Satan. Israel is the greatest Satan.”
— Palestinian Christian cleric Father 'Atallah Hanna, sermon in the Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Jerusalem, January 19, 2003


“Our position is clear: all of Palestine. Every inch of Palestine belongs to the Muslims.”
— Mahmoud Zahar, senior leader of Hamas, Quoted in the Jerusalem Post, November 14, 2003

“Hamas will keep its weapons in its hands and will defend any part of the homeland....Our national problem is not related only to the West Bank, Gaza, and al-Quds...but to Palestine, all [the territory of] Palestine.”
— Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar
al-Hayat al-Jadida, July, 5, 2005.


“Oh Allah, liberate our Al-Aqsa Mosque from the defilement of the occupying and brutal Zionists… Oh Allah, punish the occupying Zionists and their supporters from among the corrupt infidels. Oh Allah, scatter and disperse them, and make an example of them for those who take heed.”
— Sheikh Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis,  imam of Islam's most holy mosque, Al-Haram in Mecca Sermon on Saudi Channel 1, July 15, 2005


“Al-Qassam warriors, rain rockets on the settlers! Don't let any Jew sleep!
The Al-Aqsa Brigades will make you tremble in Haifa and Tel Aviv; they will strike you in Safed and Acre.
Because we do not distinguish between [Jewish] Palestine and [Arab] Palestine.
For [as] Jaffa is the same as Gaza, Tel-al-Zuhour [Tel Aviv] is the same as Rafah, and the Galilee is the same as Hebron.
We make no distinction between the parts of the earth of the homeland.”
— Song broadcast on Hamas radio station Sawt Al-Aqsa
August 16, 2005


— Muhamemd Hijazi, commander of a Fatah- affiliated militias in the Gaza Strip Jerusalem Post, September 12, 2005


— Raed Saed, a senior Hamas leader Ynet News, September 19, 2005


— Mahmoud A-Zahhar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip The Media Line, September 22, 2005


— Interview with Hamas Political Bureau deputy head Musa Abu Marzouq, Dream 2 TV (Sudan), February 13, 2006
“By Allah, I will drive them crazy. By Allah, I will turn this agreement into a curse for them. By Allah, perhaps not in my lifetime, but you will live to see the Israelis flee from Palestine. Have a little patience.”
— Al-Quds Al-Arabi Editor-in-Chief Abd Al-Bari Atwan on Arafat's comments to him regarding the Oslo agreement
ANB TV, February 16, 2006

Phased Plan & the Destruction of Israel

“The Palestinian people accepted the Oslo agreements as a first step and not as a permanent arrangement, based on the premise that the war and struggle on the ground [i.e., locally against Israeli territory] is more efficient than a struggle from a distant land... for the Palestinian people will continue the revolution until they achieve the goals of the '65 revolution...”
— PA Minister of Supply Abd El Aziz Shahian, Al Ayaam, May 30, 2000. 

[The "65 Revolution" is the founding of the PLO
and the publication of the Palestinian covenant that
calls for the destruction of Israel via an armed struggle.]
“Our people have hope for the future, that the Occupation State ceases to exist, and that it makes no difference [how great] its power and arrogance...”.
— PA Minister of Communications, Amad Alfalugi, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, November 18, 1999


“When we picked up the gun in '65 and the modern Palestinian Revolution began, it had a goal. This goal has not changed and it is the liberation of Palestine.”
— Salim Alwadia Abu Salem, Supervisor of Palestinian Political Affairs, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, January 20, 2000


“I want to say that this is our Palestine, from Metulla [Israel's northernmost city] to Rafiah [Southern border] and to Aqaba [Israel's southernmost point], from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea; whether they want it or not.”
— Dr. Jareer Al-Kidwah, advisor to President Arafat,
PA TV broadcast, November 29, 2000


“If we agree to declare our state over what is now 22 percent of Palestine, meaning the West Bank and Gaza, our ultimate goal is the liberation of all historic Palestine from the River to the Sea...We distinguish the strategic, long-term goals from the political phased goals, which we are compelled to temporarily accept due to international pressure.”
— Faisal al-Husseini, Al-Arabi, June 24, 2001


“Israel is much smaller than Iran in land mass, and therefore far more vulnerable to nuclear attack.”
— Former Iranian President Ali Rafsanjani, quoted in Jerusalem Report, March 11, 2002


“We defeated the Crusaders 800 years ago and we will defeat the enemies of Islam today.”
— Nazareth Deputy Mayor Salman Abu Ahmed, quoted in Jerusalem Report, March 4, 2002


“...we shall return to the 1967 borders, but it does not mean that we have given up on Jerusalem and Haifa, Jaffa, Lod, Ramla, Nayanyah [Al-Zuhour] and Tel Aviv [Tel Al-Rabia]. Never. We shall return to every village we had been expelled from, by Allah's will....Our approval to return to the 1967 borders is not a concession for our other rights. No!..this generation might not achieve this stage, but generations will come, and the land of Palestine...will demand that the Palestinians return the way Muhammad returned there, as a conqueror.”
— Sheikh Ibrahim Mudyris, Friday sermon, February 4, 2005


— Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar Yediot Ahronot, June 24, 2005


“Our brothers in Jerusalem and the West Bank, I am sure that Gaza is just the beginning of the process… In the next phase, we will defeat the occupation [in your area]… Residents of Occupied Palestine of 1948, in my name and in the name of all Gaza Strip residents, I ask you for your assistance to us and to our Jihad… We shall not rest until our entire holy land is liberated….”
— Muhammad Deif, Commander of the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassem Brigades, the military wing of Hamas,
August 27, 2005


— Interview with Hamas Political Bureau deputy head Musa Abu Marzouq, Dream 2 TV (Sudan), February 13, 2006

Sanctioning Violence

“The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies — civilians and military — is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aksa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim.”
— The fatwa (religious edict) issued by Osama bin Laden in 1998


"We decided to liberate our homeland step by step... this is the strategy... we say: 'should Israel continue – no problem. And so we honor the peace treaties and non-violence, so long as the agreements are fulfilled step-by-step. [But] if and when Israel says 'enough,' namely, 'we will not discuss Jerusalem, we will not return refugees, we will not dismantle settlements, we will not withdraw to the borders,' in that case it is saying that we will return to violence. But this time it will be with 30,000 armed Palestinian soldiers and in a land with elements of freedom. I am the first to call for it. If we reach a dead end we will go back to our war and struggle like we did forty years ago."
— PA Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Nabil Sha'ath, interview with ANN television (London), October 7, 2000


"Violence is around the corner, and the Palestinians are willing to sacrifice even 5,000 casualties."
— PA Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, (PA) August 24, 2000


"The Intifada will continue until the achievement of our national goals."
— PA Finance Minister Muhammad Al-Nashashibi, Al-Ayyam, October 10, 2000


"The Intifada is a means of popular struggle in which all parts of the people take part in order to realize the internationally recognized legitimate rights of the Palestinian people... This is the goal of the Intifada... The use of violence, the struggle and martyrdom... used by people to achieve their rights."
— PLO representative in Washington, Hassan Abd Al-Rahman, TV MBC, October 10, 2000


"The Intifada should be continued and escalated."
— The head of the Fatah organization in the West Bank, Marwan Al-Barghuthi, Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar), October 11, 2000


"The Palestinian people are in a state of emergency against the failure of the Camp David summit. If the situation explodes, the Palestinian people living in the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority are ready for the next fierce battle against the Israeli occupation. ... The next Intifada will be more violent than the first one especially since the Palestinian people now possess weapons allowing them to defend themselves in a confrontation with the Israeli army. ... the Lebanese experience of wiping out the Israeli occupation from southern Lebanon gave the Palestinian people the needed moral strength and added to their spirit of armed struggle."
— A "senior security figure" in the Palestinian Authority,
Kul Al-Arab, July 14, 2000


“The issues of Jerusalem, the refugees and sovereignty are one and will be finalized on the ground and not in negotiations. At this point it is important to prepare Palestinian society for the challenge of the next step because we will inevitably find ourselves in a violent confrontation with Israel in order to create new facts on the ground. ... I believe that the situation in the future will be more violent than the Intifada.”
— Abu-Ali Mustafa of the Palestinian Authority, July 23, 2000


“Hamas has tens of martyrs who are willing to carry out attacks against Israeli targets. An operation of such martyrs exceeds that of the Arab armies who fought the Hebrew state. The importance of the weapons of such martyrs is no less than the importance of nuclear weapons.”
— Khaled Mash'al, head of the Hamas Politbureau, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (PA), June 24, 2001


“We are teaching the children that suicide bombs make Israeli people frightened and we are allowed to do it....We teach them that after a person becomes a suicide bomber he reaches the highest level of paradise.”
— Palestinian “Paradise Camp” counselor speaking to BBC interviewer, quoted in Jerusalem Post, July 20, 2001


“I promise that the number of shootings at the occupation will increase to 500 to 1,000 shooting [incidents] per day....The Palestinians have trained themselves to attack the Israeli tanks and explode their bodies that will be loaded with a belt of explosives, as part of the preparations for a possible Israeli attack in the Palestinian territories....The current intifada differs from the previous one because it is armed and the Palestinians are fighting inside their territory and from it.”
— Deputy Commander of Force-17, Muhammad Dhamrah (a.k.a., Abu Awdh), Al-Hayat, August 17, 2001


“The suicide bombers of today are the noble successors of their noble predecessors...the Lebanese suicide bombers, who taught the U.S. Marines a tough lesson in [Lebanon]....These suicide bombers are the salt of the earth, the engines of history....They are the most honorable [people] among us.....”
— Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (PA), June 24, 2001


“I do not think that a Muslim would let an Islamic homeland like Palestine, and Jerusalem, remain in the hands of the Zionists, who plunder it and damage its holy sites, without the owners of the land having the right to defend themselves. All I said is that this oppressed people that was expelled from its home has the right to become a human bomb and blow himself up inside this military society.”
— Sheikh Yussef Al-Qaradhawi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar), September 16, 2001


“Our efforts to continue the Intifada and resistance will persist until we achieve our right of return, and our independence, with Jerusalem as the capital.”
— Ahmad Sa'adat speaking at a press conference after becoming leader of the PFLP, Jerusalem Post, October 4, 2001


“Resistance is legitimate and those who give up their lives do not require permission from anyone....We must not stand in the way of the intifada and jihad [holy war]. Rather, we must stand at their side and encourage them.”
— Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Akrameh Sabri, Al-Hayat, December 7, 2001


“With God´s help, next time we will meet in Jerusalem, because we are fighting to bring victory to our prophets, every baby, every kid, every man, every woman and every old person and all the young people, we will all sacrifice ourselves for our holy places and we will strengthen our hold of them and we are willing to give 70 of our martyrs for every one of theirs in this campaign, because this is our holy land. We will continue to fight for this blessed land and I call on you to stand strong..”
— Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, speech at a rally in Ramallah, December 18, 2001


“O God, destroy the tyrant Jews. O God, deal with the Jews and their supporters. O God destroy them for they are within your power.”
— Saudi Sheikh Usamah bin-Abdallah Khayyat sermon from the Holy Mosque in Mecca broadcast on Saudi government television, July 12, 2002


“We have examined our options and our path, and we have chosen the path of slaughter, by acts of Jihad, Istshahad (suicide) and resistance of every form, side-by-side with our brothers in the Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and all the other Palestinian resistance groups, until the liberation of Palestine and the return of the refugees.”
— Part of a warning posted on the web site of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military arm of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization, August 7, 2002


“If they go from Sheba'a, we will not stop fighting them. Our goal is to liberate the 1948 borders of Palestine...[Jews] can go back to Germany or wherever they came from.”
— Hezbollah spokesperson Hassan Ezzedin New Yorker, October 14, 2002


“If they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.”
— Hezbollah leader Sheikh Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah Lebanon Daily Star, October 23, 2002


“The Jewish-Crusader coalition will not be safe anywhere from the fighters' attacks. We will hit the most vital centers and we will strike against its strategic operations with all possible peaces.”
— Attributed on Al-Jazeera TV to al-Qaida spokesman SuleimanAbu Gheith December 8, 2002


“The jihad and suicide bombings will continue — the Zionist entity will reach its end in the first quarter of the current century. It is therefore up to you [Muslim holy fighters] to be patient — the Hamas takes upon itself the liberation of all Palestinian land from the sea to the river in the Rafah [in the south] and until Rosh Hanikra [in the north].”
— Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin Al-Ayyam, December 28, 2002


“Find what strength you have to terrorize your enemy and the enemy of God.”
— Speech by Yasser Arafat VOA , May 15, 2004


— Speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
AP , October 26, 2005


— Leaflet distributed by Aksa Martyrs Brigadessupporting Ahmadinejad's call to wipe Israel off the map
November 6, 2005


http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf25.html
Posted by Baruch Dov Bear Wohlmeuth at 1:00 PM

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