The word from Gaza – Killing Jews is "an act of worship"

To quote the complete sentence:

Praise be to you, our Lord. You have made our killing of the Jews an act of worship, through which we come closer to you.

So why dwell on the negative (as my mother used to say to me sometimes when I was younger)? In a way, this is a boring dog-bites-man story, since in certain parts of the world this kind of rhetoric is routine, not exceptional. But I think it's useful to be reminded of that fact from time to time. Of course, I know some people believe that murderous anti-semitism is no big deal, or at most an "understandable" reaction. I don't feel that way.

Here is a video clip of excerpts from a rally in Gaza, taken from a broadcast on Al-Aqsa TV, the official Hamas-run TV station (via MEMRI). A transcript is below, but I recommend watching the video itself to get the full flavor.



Incidentally, if you listen to the video, you won't have to understand Arabic to know that when the rally organizer thanks God for making "our killing of Jews an act of worship" and promises to "harvest the skulls of Jews", the word he uses is indeed "Jews" ("Yahud") not "Zionists". Yes, he does threaten "Zionists" too, and promises to "uproot" and expel them from Jerusalem, Haifa, Tel Aviv, and the rest of a country whose name he won't utter, Israel. I expect some people will seize on that to try to pretend that this speech is neither murderous nor anti-semitic, but such people are beyond the reach of argument or evidence anyway.

(Thanks to Mick Hartley for the tip.)

—Jeff Weintraub

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Islamic Militants in Gaza: Allah's Teachings Are the Fire with Which "We Harvest the Skulls of the Jews"; "We Move Closer to Allah through Blood, Body Parts, and Martyrs"

Following are excerpts from statements made at a rally of the Palestinian Al-Ahrar movement in Gaza, a pro-Hamas group that split from Fatah, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on November 3, 2011:

Rally organizer: Praise be to you, our Lord. You have made our killing of the Jews an act of worship, through which we come closer to you. [....]

Allah's prayers upon you, our beloved Prophet [Muhammad]. You have made your teachings into constitutions for us – the light with which we dissipate the darkness of the occupation, and the fire with which we harvest the skulls of the Jews. [....]

Yes, our beloved brothers, even though the entire world moves closer to Allah through fasting, through hunger, and through tears, we are a people that moves closer to Allah through blood, through body parts, and through martyrs. [....]

Oh sons of Palestine, oh sons of the Gaza Strip, oh mujahideen – wage Jihad, wreak destruction, blow up and harvest the heads of the Zionists. Words are useless by now. The lie of peace is gone. Only weapons are of any use – the path of [recently killed] Yousuf and Ali, the path of martyrdom and Jihad. Only our wounds talk on our behalf. We speak nothing but the language of struggle, of Jihad, or rockets, of bombs, of cannons and of martyrdom-seekers. This is the language in which we talk and negotiate with the Zionist enemy. [....]

We say to the Zionists: Like a bad seed, we shall uproot you from our land, so that it can blossom in the light of the everlasting sun of our Jihad, and of our invincible religion. Jerusalem is not yours – get out of it! Haifa is not yours – get out of it! Tel Aviv is not yours – get out of it! Oh Zionists, get out before we expel you. these are the words of the mujahideen. [....]