“Revitalized” PA: New Minister of Religion: Jews are “apes and pigs”; New Minister of Women’s Affairs is a brazen terror supporter

• New Minister of Religious Affairs Muhammad Mustafa Najem: “Allah turned [the Jews] into apes and pigs”
• Najem: “O servants of Allah, be the ones through which Allah will afflict the Jews with the worst torment”
• New Minister of Women’s Affairs Muna Al-Khalili praised the murder of 37 civilians, 12 of them children, as a “quality resistance operation” 
• Al-Khalili: “The selection of Dalal as commander of the operation (i.e., murdering 37) constitutes proof of the PLO’s appreciation of the role of women”
• 3 weeks after the Oct. 7 terror attack against Israel, Al-Khalili stressed “the Palestinian people’s right to resist”
• 10 days after the Oct. 7 atrocities, Al-Khalili's union honored many convicted terrorist murderers, coining them “heroic prisoners,” while she sat behind the pictures of Ibrahim Hamed (murdered 53), Akram Hamed (murdered 3), and Marwan Barghouti (murdered 5)

PMW calls on Israel and the United States, which has led the call for a “revitalized” PA, to demand that Najem and Al-Khalili and any other terror supporters in the new PA government be immediately replaced. If the previous PA terror-supporting government is replaced by a new terror-supporting government, the PA is making a mockery of the US demand for “revitalization.” 

The Palestinian Authority has announced a new government as part of its fulfillment of the US demand for a “revitalized” PA [http://www.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/92667]. However, for the PA, “revitalization” does not preclude religious incitement to terror and demonizing Jews as “apes and pigs,” supporting terror and terrorists, or rejecting Israel's legitimacy as a state.

1. New minister Muna Al-Khalili praised the murder of 37 as a “quality resistance operation”

Muna Al-Khalili, the new PA Minister of Women’s Affairs, is an outspoken terror supporter, having publicly glorified the murder of 37 Israeli civilians. As Chairwoman of the PLO General Union of Palestinian Women, Al-Khalili spoke at an event honoring Dalal Mughrabi, who led the most murderous terror attack in Israel’s history, prior to October 7. On March 11, 1978, Mughrabi led a team of PLO terrorists who hijacked a civilian bus and murdered 37 civilians, including 12 children and one American photographer—Gail Rubin.

In her speech, Al-Khalili praised the murder of the 37 civilians as a “quality resistance operation.” She also praised the decision to appoint a woman to lead the massacre, calling Mughrabi the “head of a squad of self-sacrificing fighters (Fedayeen)” and saying that Mughrabi “proved that Palestinian women are capable of carrying out the most difficult missions”: 
 

“The Chairwoman of the [PLO General] Union of Palestinian Women Muna Al-Khalili said…: ‘We are gathering today 40 years after the quality resistance operation that 20-year-old Martyr Dalal Mughrabi led, (i.e., terrorist bus hijacking and murder of 37 civilians, 12 of them children) at the head of a squad of self-sacrificing fighters (Fedayeen), and she proved that Palestinian women are capable of carrying out the most difficult missions.’ She explained that the selection of Dalal as commander of the operation constitutes proof of the PLO’s appreciation of the role of women, and that Martyr leader Khalil Al-Wazir (i.e., Abu Jihad) did not choose Dalal as commander of the operation accidentally, as those who know him and were in his company confirmed that he wanted to convey a message to the Palestinians and to the world regarding the significance of the role of women in the national struggle, in the liberation, and in laying the foundations of a society in which social justice prevails for the future State of Palestine.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 12, 2018]

2. 3 weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, Al-Khalili “emphasize[s] the Palestinian’s right to resist”
 

3 weeks after Hamas’ rapes, torture, murders, and massacre on Oct. 7, Muna Al-Khalili spoke at a conference and brazenly supported Palestinians’ right to “resist” – the PA euphemism for terror and murder. In addition, she also denied Israel's right to exist in any borders, calling Israel an "occupation for the past 75 years," i.e., since Israel’s founding:

“We in the General Union of Palestinian Women emphasize the Palestinian people’s right to resist the occupation (i.e., Israel) that has continued for the past 75 years, [a right] that is anchored in the resolutions of the international institutions. We emphasize that there will be no peace or stability in the entire region and the world without the Palestinian people receiving its legitimate rights – self-determination, freedom, independence in its sovereign state whose capital is Jerusalem – and without a just resolution for the refugees’ issue according to [UN] Resolution 194.”

 

[Conference of Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate, PLO website, Oct. 26, 2023]

3. 10 days after Oct. 7, Al-Khalili honored convicted murderers of 61 as “heroic prisoners”

The General Union of Palestinian Women that Al-Khalili heads held a vigil calling for the release of terrorist prisoners just 10 days after the Oct. 7, 2023 atrocities. Al-Khalili sat right behind four posters featuring the names and pictures of different terrorist murderers imprisoned in Israel for past terror attacks, each with the text: “Freedom for the heroic prisoner.”

From left to right in front of Al-Khalili are posters honoring Ibrahim Hamed, a Hamas leader responsible for the murder of at least 53 people in a series of bombings: Sheffield Club (15 murdered), Hillel Cafe (7 murdered), Hebrew University (9 murdered), Moment Cafe (11 murdered), and Zion Square (11 murdered); Akram Hamed, who murdered 3; Marwan Barghouti, who orchestrated attacks in which at least 5 people were murdered; and Ali Barghouti, who aided Marwan Barghouti and also murdered Palestinians he suspected of aiding Israel. As head of the organization appearing with these posters, Al-Khalili is honoring these well-known terrorist mass murderers.

[PLO General Union of Palestinian Women – General Secretariat,

Facebook page, Oct. 17, 2023]

4. New PA Minister of Religious Affairs called to “afflict the Jews with the worst torment,” calling them “apes and pigs”

The new “revitalized” PA government also includes religious leader Muhammad Mustafa Najem as PA Minister of Religious Affairs. Najem openly called for terror in a sermon on official PA TV during the PA terror campaign (the second Intifada, 2000-2005, more than 1,100 Israelis murdered), framing his incitement as a religious imperative: “O servants of Allah, be the ones through which Allah will afflict the Jews with the worst torment.”

Najem went on to demonize the Jews with toxic Antisemitism, saying they are “characterized by conceit, pride, arrogance, rioting, disloyalty, and treachery,” and adding that “Allah turned them into apes and pigs” while quoting from the Quran. It is of note that by espousing this Quranic Antisemitism, Najem portrays Israel as being inherently evil and therefore irredeemable, fated only to torture and punishment:

PA religious leader Muhammad Mustafa Najem: “Praise Allah… It is He who warned us of the Jews and of the Jews’ ethics in the clearest manner, and He fought them and waged Jihad against them – after they attempted to murder the call [to Allah] from its foundations and to murder Prophet [Muhammad] in a political murder…

The Jews – as is their practice, and as Allah described them in His book [the Quran], and in the Prophet’s tradition [the Hadith] – are characterized by conceit, pride, arrogance, rioting, disloyalty, and treachery…

And they were jealous of the Muslims because the Prophet was not one of them. They are still jealous; they were jealous, and they are still jealous. They killed, and they are still killing. They betrayed, and they are still betraying. They spilled blood, and they are still spilling blood, and so on and so forth…

The same goes for their rulers, any political party or any group, it is all the same. Whether the crime rates are on the rise or the decline, they have a common denominator and it is hostility to Islam and the Muslims, hostility to the bearers of the truth, hostility to the sons of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, hostility to the bearers of the historical truth in this land…

Therefore, [violence and crimes] are not an exception to them and their nature, due to which Allah turned them into apes and pigs (i.e., an antisemitic Quranic reference to Jews): ‘So when they were insolent about that which they had been forbidden, We said to them, “Be apes, despised.” …And [mention] when your Lord declared that He would surely [continue to] send upon them until the Day of Resurrection those who would afflict them with the worst torment. Indeed, your Lord is swift in penalty; but indeed, He is Forgiving and Merciful’ [Quran 7:166-167]. O servants of Allah, be the ones through which Allah will afflict the Jews with the worst torment…

Allah, grant us victory over the Jews and those who side with them! Allah, grant us victory over the Jews and those who side with them! Allah, grant us victory over the Jews and the patrons of the Jews’ arrogance!”

 

[Official PA TV, Nov. 1, 2002]

PMW calls on Israel and the United States, which has led the call for a “revitalized” PA, to demand that Najem and Al-Khalili and any other terror supporters in the new PA government be immediately replaced. If the previous PA terror supporting government is replaced by a new terror supporting government, the PA is making a mockery of the US demand for “revitalization.”