A lawmaker from Hamas recently called for a “massacre” of Jews, explaining that Koran indicates that this must be done.
In a televised address the lawmaker, Yunis Al-Astal, also said that Jews must be forced to pay the “jizya” tax, which under the strict Islamic Sharia doctrine, non-Muslims living under Muslim sovereignty must pay in return for the ruler’s protection. Jihadist rebels who have taken control of areas in Syria have imposed such a tax on Christian minorities.
Al-Astal’s address aired on March 6 on Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV. It was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
“In today’s show, we will discuss the demand that the Palestinian people recognize [Israel] as a Jewish state, so that the occupation will graciously hand them out scraps. I would like to begin by quoting what Allah said about them: ‘The worst of beasts in the sight of Allah are those who disbelieve. They are the ones with whom you made a covenant, but they break their covenant every time,’” said Al-Astal.
“The obvious question is: What is the solution to this gang of people? The Al-Anfal chapter of the Koran provides us with the answer,” he continued. “After He said: ‘They are the ones with whom you made a covenant, but they break their covenant every time,’ Allah added: ‘If you gain mastery over them in a war, use them to disperse those who follow them that they may remember.’ This indicates that we must massacre them, in order to break them down and prevent them from sowing corruption in the world. They are the ones who still spark the flame of war, but Allah has taken it upon Himself to extinguish it.”
MEMRI’s release of Al-Astal’s comments comes on the same day that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh threatened Israel it would pay dearly if it heeded the growing calls to retake Gaza.
“We tell the enemy and (Foreign Minister Avigdor) Liberman who is threatening to reoccupy Gaza that the time for your threats is over,” Haniyeh declared, at a rally in Gaza City. “Any aggression or crime or stupidity you commit will cost you a very high price.”
Arab incitement against Israel has continued throughout the peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA). It is not only Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by most Western countries, that has incited against Israel, but also the PA under Mahmoud Abbas, who is often described as a “moderate peace partner.”
The Israeli government only recently released its annual “Palestinian Incitement Index”, which showed that incitement against Israel and the Jewish people is continuing on official media channels including – inter alia – by bodies that are very close to the PA Chairman and in educational and religious networks.
Such incitement ranges from the glorification of Nazism and the lionization of Adolf Hitler, to programs on official PA television featuring heavily-stereotyped Jews as villains (and encouraging violence against them), and various TV and radio shows which literally wipe the Jewish state off the map.
In addition, top officials in Abbas’s Fatah party have also openly supported Hamas’s efforts to kidnap Israeli soldiers. One of these officials, Abbas Zaki, recently declared that “Allah will gather [Israelis] so that we can kill them.”