Itamar Marcus shows UN Human Rights Council that PA Antisemitism led to Oct. 7
- A mistake has been made by the UN, the EU, the US… to limit the conflict to a conflict over land. They have all been ignoring that it is also a conflict against people, it’s a Palestinian conflict against Jews.”
- “If we look at the total picture, the PA’s political Antisemitism… which teaches that the whole world hates the Jews… compounded by the PA’s religious Antisemitism which teaches that Allah also hates the Jews and wants them destroyed, it creates the perfect storm of hate, guaranteeing that Oct. 7 can happen and that Oct. 7 will be celebrated.”
On Dec. 7 Itamar Marcus spoke at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva to dozens of UN ambassadors from around the world.
Marcus’ message was straightforward: Hamas’ October 7 atrocities did not happen in a vacuum. It was years of Palestinian Authority Antisemitism and demonization of Jews that directly led both to the October 7 atrocities and to a Palestinian population that celebrated the atrocities. Click here to view the 15-minute presentation.
The following is the transcript (with edits).
Itamar Marcus:
The title of my presentation is ‘The PA Demonization of Jews and Israelis that Led to Oct. 7 and Its Celebration,’ because two separate events happened. There was the Oct. 7 atrocity that Hamas led – we must understand how this happened; and there is also the celebration of those events which went far beyond Hamas and was throughout the entire Palestinian Authority. These 2 topics are what I want to focus on today.
There has been a mistake made by the UN, the EU, the American government, all of those who are so interested in peace in the Middle East, which is to limit the conflict to a conflict over territory, limit the conflict to a conflict over land. They have all been ignoring that it is also a conflict against people, it’s a Palestinian conflict against Jews. I want to show you what the PA tells its people about Jews and Israelis because this is a fundamental part of Palestinian ideology. I will also show how this is a central part of what led to the Oct. 7 atrocities.
Palestinian Antisemitism can be divided into two distinct categories: PA political Antisemitism and PA religious Antisemitism. I will show you examples of both.
This video was first broadcast Jan. 17 of this year on official Palestinian TV.
Palestinian researcher Muhammad Al-Yahya: “Jews are by nature arrogant, do not accept the other, always keep to themselves. The Europeans hated them and wanted to get rid of them, so the European countries ... had the idea of establishing a Jewish state for the Jews… Their [Jewish] thinking is based on racism that caused them to be hated everywhere. The Zionist thinking is based on them being ‘God’s chosen people.’ In the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (i.e., an antisemitic forgery), in what was leaked, there is a sentence that they are fulfilling that has caused them to be hated by all peoples… The pure Jew has the outlook that he is of the people chosen by God."
[Official PA TV, Returning, Jan. 17, 2023 and Feb. 27, 2023, May 14, 2023]
Itamar Marcus:
Official PA TV thought this hate speech was so important that it rebroadcast it three times in the first few months of 2023. This message is so central to PA ideology that Palestinian Media Watch has been documenting it for over 25 years ago. The message is that Israel, the Jews, have no history in the land of Israel and it’s the Europeans as an act of self-defense who created Israel so that they could get rid of their Jews. All of Europe suffered from the Jews, they had to get rid of the Jews, and that’s why they stole Palestine – to send the Jews away and solve their Jewish problem.
This was recently repeated by Mahmoud Abbas himself when speaking at the UN.
“Britain and the United States… decided to establish and plant a foreign entity in our historic homeland, for colonialist purposes of their own...
The truth is that these Western countries wanted to get rid of the Jews – and profit from them in Palestine. 'Two birds with one stone’.”
[Archive news, YouTube channel, May 15 2023]
Itamar Marcus:
These are two fundamental components of Palestinian ideology – Israel exists as a colonial implant to give the colonialists a foothold in the Middle East, but also to get rid of their Jews, because their Jews were so detrimental to Europe. As Abbas said: ‘Two birds with one stone.’
An unbelievable expression of this ideology was stated on official PA TV three weeks after the Oct. 7 atrocities. The PA had to explain to its people why the international community was supporting Israel, and the explanation given on official PA TV was that Europe wants Israel to survive so the Jews - the “human waste” - don't return to Europe:
Palestinian political commentator Kamal Zakarneh: “They [Europe and America] are demonstrating a lot of solidarity with the Israeli occupation… They are not expressing these positions out of love for ‘Israel’, but rather they – Europe and America – succeeded in getting rid of the Jews, whom they themselves view as human waste, and they threw them out into Palestine. They created a place for them far away from them, far away from Europe. They don’t want reverse migration now and their [the Jews’] return to Europe again… [US President Joe] Biden said this during the events in Israel: ‘If there were not an Israel, we’d have to invent one.’ He would have invented it to absorb the human waste.”
[Official PA TV, Oct. 24, 2023]
Itamar Marcus:
Europe succeeded in getting rid of the human waste – the Jews. They don’t want Israel to be destroyed solely so that they won’t have the human waste come back to Europe – this is Palestinian ideology.
As bad as this political Antisemitism is, this is compounded and essentially given the stamp of approval by Allah himself through the Palestinian Authority’s religious Antisemitism.
The most important religious figure in the PA - Mahmoud Al-Habbash - is Mahmoud Abbas’ personal advisor on Islam, he’s also been appointed to the head of the Shari’ah courts, and he also gives almost every broadcast Friday sermon on official PA TV. Al-Habbash is the face of Islam for the PA. I want you to hear what he said about Jews and how he describes them. This is a sermon he gave last year explaining that Jews are “humaniods” - sub-humans, cursed by Allah to be apes and pigs, and therefore Palestinians must prevent Jews from visiting Judaism’s holiest site the Temple Mount which is where the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built.
Abbas’ advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash and PA Supreme Shari’ah Judge: “The minimal [Muslim] duty is at least to visit [the Al-Aqsa Mosque], to awaken to it, so that it will not be abandoned as prey in the hands of the grazing herds of humanoids (i.e., Jews), of people or creatures that Allah created in the form of humans… Those whom Allah has cursed and with whom He became angry and made of them apes and pigs.” [Quran 5:60]… [Muslims must visit the mosque] instead of the Al-Aqsa Mosque continuing to be the prey of humanoids (i.e., Jews).”
[Official PA TV, Sept. 30, 2022]
Itamar Marcus:
Jews are humanoids, creatures cursed by Allah, apes and pigs - they are not really humans! This is from the most important PA religious figure.
And earlier this year he went even further in one of his religious lessons.
Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “A group from among the People of the Book (i.e., Jews) wants to deceive you… and turn you back from your religion so that you will be like them. This goes back to the initial point of the conflict, the conflict between good and evil...They [Jews] have left the path of humanity and followed Satanity. Satanity is an exit from humanity … Satan does not have to be in the form of a demon, hidden, he can also be in your form, but he is Satan. In the form of man, but he is Satan.And they (i.e., Satan-Jews) are still fighting us until they turn us back from our religion.”
[Official PA TV, July 7, 2023]
Itamar Marcus:
Satan is in the form of Jews and Satan-Jews “are still fighting us.” Humanoids means we’re subhuman; connected to Satan means we’re also the source of all the evil in the world. This is coming from the top religious figure in the PA.
Every week, the Ministry of Religion of the PA publicized its talking points, what all the preachers in all the mosques in the PA are supposed to preach on Friday.” And 11 days after Oct. 7, they included the Hadith – Islamic teaching - that killing Jews and eventually exterminating Jews is an Islamic imperative:
“The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, and the rock or a tree will say: ‘Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him’”
[PA Ministry of Religious Affairs, Facebook page, Oct. 18, 2023]
Itamar Marcus:
This is one of those talking points – preachers were told they must talk about the extermination of the Jews by Muslims – the Jews who are going to hide behind rocks and trees. The message to their people, and there can be no doubt about this, is that the killing of all of those Jews that just happened on Oct. 7 is part of Islamic destiny. It’s part of Islam’s project of clearing the world of Jews. And this is the Ministry of Religion of the PA publishing this.
Because of its fundamental support for killing Jews, the PA has always celebrated terror. I want to give you two recent examples from the two top figures in the PA, first from the Prime Minister of the PA Muhammad Shtayyeh. Earlier this year in April, Lucy, Maia, and Rina Dee were all murdered in a drive-by shooting. A month later Israel caught two murderers and the accomplice and in the shootout they killed them. On the same day that they were killed the PM of the PA Muhammad Shtayyeh posted the picture of the murderers of these 3 women, with this text: “Glory and eternity to our righteous Martyrs.” So ‘glory and eternity’ are the secular concept, a nationalistic celebration, and ‘our righteous Martyrs’ is a religious concept, meaning ‘they died for Allah,’ the meaning of ‘Shahid,’ is someone who died for Allah. Killing these 3 women is presented as fulfillment of Islam by the PM of the PA.
Mahmoud Abbas also earlier this year honored terrorist murderers. After 40 years in prison, Israel released two murderers, they had kidnapped an Israeli soldier who was on leave and they murdered him. [Abbas] called them up on the day that they were released and broadcast himself saying this to them.”
“We are proud of you. You are [role] models of this nation, [role] models of this people. You are icons of the Palestinian people.”
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: “You [Maher] and Karim [Younes,] are prominent figures among this Palestinian people. We are proud of you… You are [role] models of this nation, [role] models of this people. You are icons of the Palestinian people… Allah willing reward will come to you from our God and from the entire nation that honors and appreciates you and says: This man is a great man in the Palestinian people… Allah willing you will see the entire [homeland] liberated, and the Palestinian state will be established, we will get rid of the occupation, and Jerusalem will be the capital of this [Palestinian] state…”
[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, Jan. 19, 2023]
Itamar Marcus:
According to Mahmoud Abbas, murderers are ‘role models of the nation, icons of the Palestinian people.’ Palestinian Media Watch has published hundreds of examples like this of Abbas’ and other PA leaders' incessant support and promotion of terror even for children. The entire Palestinian Authority summer camp program this year for 65,000 Palestinian children and teens, was in honor of so-called Martyrs: “Martyrs are shining moons and not numbers.” One summer camp graduation ceremony that Fatah posted on its official education division’ Facebook page showed children learning to do those horrific things that Hamas did in its horrific Oct. 7 atrocity. They were proud of what was happening in the Fatah summer camps. They showed children with their faces covered like terrorists doing kidnappings, shooting, fighting.
This is PA ideology, it’s not just Hamas, and that’s what’s so critical that I’m trying to stress here. Teaching kids to grow up to be violent has been the PA message for years.
Now, given all of this background and PA ideology, and I’ve shown you just a tip of the iceberg of this problem, how did the PA and Fatah respond to the Oct. 7 atrocities?
A day after, a Fatah official, on official and controlled PA TV, this is how he felt one day after it started.”
Fatah Jenin branch member Abd Al-Rahman Abu Al-Rub: “We say to our people and to the members of the Palestinian people: A morning of victory, and morning of joy, a morning of pride. We ask Allah to send a blessing to our heroic Martyrs in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and wherever the Palestinian people is… We in the Fatah Movement in the Jenin district convey the message to all our brothers and to all our Palestinian people that they are compelled to take action and participate in this story of heroism with the Palestinian people that is realizing its natural right to fight the occupation and liberate the occupied lands.”
[Official PA TV, Oct. 8, 2023]
Itamar Marcus:
Victory, joy, pride,- this is what Palestinians were feeling. It went on continuously, statements like this, and Nov. 26, one of the top Palestinian figures Jibril Rajoub, possibly the next PA leader after Abbas, said:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “What happened on Oct. 7 was an earthquake, an unprecedented incident, and a war of defense full of epics and acts of heroism that the Palestinian people has been waging for 75 years.”
[Al-Anba, Kuwaiti news website, Nov. 26, 2023]
Itamar Marcus:
"This is Jibril Rajoub talking about Oct. 7. And I think this picture summarizes the PA message to its people about what happened.”
[Fatah Movement – Bethlehem Branch, Telegram channel, Oct. 8, 2023]
"This is the Palestinian boot crushing the Israeli rat, this was published by the Fatah Movement in Bethlehem on their Telegram channel. Israel is a rat being crushed by Palestinians.
And this PA response was central to bringing the entire Palestinian population to support the Oct 7 attack. In mid-November, long after everyone knew about the atrocities of October 7, the respected Palestinian polling institute ARWAD did a special survey on Oct. 7 of Palestinians in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and the findings are eye-opening. To the question: ‘How much do you support the military operation of Oct. 7,’ a full 59% said they ‘extremely support,’ another 15% said they ‘somewhat support,’ in total 75% of Palestinians support the October 7 attack. The question was explicit about “the military operation of Oct. 7”. A second question that they asked, ‘Considering the ongoing events’ meaning Oct. 7 plus the Gaza war ‘do you feel a sense of pride as Palestinians?’ And this was shocking: 98% said they feel pride as Palestinians, 94% said proud, ‘to a great extent.’ So the massacres of the Jews, in spite of the terrible destruction that the attack brought on Gaza Strip, brought universal pride to the Palestinian population. The gap between the 98% being proud and 75% supporting, I suspect is a function of the destruction and suffering that the October 7 attack brought on the residents of the Gaza Strip. This poll was done in November and already significant damage had been done to Gaza. It could be that 23% of the people felt proud but they didn’t support the action because of all the damage it had caused. Whatever the explanation, these figures are shocking and it has to be a wakeup call in terms of what the Palestinian population believes.
Another question in the poll is also very significant. What did Palestinians think about the role of the different groups played. 76% felt the role of Hamas was positive. How about the PA? 10% felt the PA played a positive role. The PA no longer represents the Palestinian people. Terror and killing and massacres is what the Palestinians say represent them.
While this is horrifying, it’s not surprising if you look at the messages the PA has been sending to all their people for years. PMW has been warning all these years: If you bring up people with these messages, Oct. 7 not only happens, but it also ends up having the support of the Palestinian population.
A final thing I’ll just touch on, not only does the PA support and glorify, they also reward terror, and here I’ll give you just one example. In the October 7 massacre, we know that many families were completely wiped out by Hamas, others had multiple members killed. This poster is one example of an Israeli family that was massacred already in 2011. Ruth Fogel and Ehud Fogel, Yoav, Elad, and Hadas, their three young children all were killed in their home, the children were killed in their beds at night. The PA has rewarded the two terrorists in monthly salaries, already $267,000. The terror rewards of the PA is very real. The explicit message the PA sends to its population, through its the glorification of terrorists with words like Mahmoud Abbas’ to terrorist murderers: “We are proud of you, You are role models, You are icons of the Palestinian people,” and through terrorists’ very high financial rewards, is that PA supports Palestinians killing Israelis. There is no doubt that every Palestinian understands the message from their leaders that killing Israelis is something that they want.
To summarize: If we look at the total picture together, the PA’s political Antisemitism – ‘everyone hates the Jews, not just we Palestinians, the whole world hates the Jews and wants to get rid of them’; compounded by the PA’s religious Antisemitism which teaches that Allah also hates the Jews and wants them destroyed, it creates the perfect storm of hate, guaranteeing that Oct. 7 can happen and that Oct. 7 will be supported and celebrated by the Palestinian population. Thank you.”
[Permanent Mission Israel United Nations – Geneva, YouTube channel, Dec. 7, 2023]