Arabs and anti-Semitism

Arab Anti-Semitism in the 20th and 21st century

Within the Arab world there are people who hold Anti-Semitic viewpoints. Many view this as an indication of the hostile intentions of the Arab world, and something that must be taken into account when analyzing the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Arab newspapers

Some Arab newspapers (notably Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, Palestinian Authority's official newspaper) write that "the Jews" control all the world's governments, and that "the Jews" plan genocide on all the Arabs in the West Bank. Others write less sensational stories, and states that Jews have too much of an influence in the US government. Sometimes the leaders of other nations are said to be controlled by Jews. Some Arab newspapers run stories saying that all Jews are capitalists and control the world's banks; ironically, these same papers also run articles saying that all Jews are communists and plan a Marxist

Arab newspapers carry story saying that the State of Israel plans to expand settlements in the West Bank, and other articles critical of Israel, but criticism of Israeli policy as such is not considered anti-Semitic by any mainstream Jewish group.

Articles in many official Arab government newspapers (notably those of the Palestinian Authority, Libya and Saudi Arabia) state that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an infamous anti-Semitic forgery, reflects actual facts, and thus points to an "international Jewish conspiracy" to take over the world. They also hold that this conspirary will deny the Palestinians a state.

Many Arab newspapers, both those funded by governments as well as independents, either deny that the Holocaust ever took place, or state that it was massively exaggerated. Examples include the following:

"Netanyahu's Plan completely matches the foundations of the greater Zionist plan which is organized according to specific stages that were determined when the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was composed and when Herzl along with Weizmann traveled around the world in order to determine the appropriate location for the implementation of this conspiracy," (official Palestinian Authority newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, November 30, 1997)

"The Jews seek to conquer the world...We must expose the Zionist-Colonialist plot and its goals, which destroy not only our people but the entire world" (PA Minister of Agriculture, Abdel Jawad Saleh[?], quoted in Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, November 6, 1997)

[1] (http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/anti-semitism/pastatements)

A summary of Arab Anti-Semitism is available in the following review.

Arab Anti-Semitism in 1998/99 (http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw98-9/arab)

Arab response to September 11 terrorist attack

Across the Arab world, Arab government-sponsored newspapers (notably those of the Palestinian Authority, Libya and Saudi Arabia) were immediately filled with articles "proving" that the attack was actually carried out by "the Jews", "the Zionists", "the Israelis" and even "the Americans". For a great many within the Arab world, this terrorist act was seen as a conspiracy to make the world hate all Arabs, and therefore people perceived to be enemies of the Arabs must really be to blame.

Educated Arabs and Muslims do not accept such views, and like Americans, they correctly saw these claims to be yet another conspiracy theory. The Jewish community was and is concerned about this new form of Anti-Semitism. Other Arab Muslim religious leaders held that these attacks were indeed carried out by Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda, and spoke out in approval. A third Arab response was recognition that these events were carried out by Al Qaeda, and were reprehensible acts of terrorism.

The Palestinian Authority's view of Jewish people

The Palestinian Authority's official television channel has shows which teach 6 and 7 year old kids to murder Jewish people. Episodes of a program called “The Children's Club,” broadcast in early 1998, showed a group of young Arab children, one of whom stood up, raised her fist, and shouted: “When I wander into Jerusalem, I will turn into a suicide warrior in battle dress! In battle dress!” She was cheered and applauded by the other children in the group, and their adult leader declared, “Bravo! Bravo!” On another segment, a young girl sang: “Each and every part of your soil I have drenched with all my blood. And we shall march as warriors of Jihad. Oh, my exalted martyr, you are my example. Oh, my sister, sing constantly about my life as a suicide warrior, how we remain steadfast. On, my country, you are my soul.” (Videotape of “The Children's Club”, Peace for Generations, Jerusalem, 1998)

An investigation by the Philadelphia Inquirer (September 7, 1997) found children's programs on PA television in which an 8 year-old girl was shown singing: “I am a daughter of Palestine. Koran in my right hand, in my left — a knife,” and another in which a young girl recites a poem she said she wrote for Yassir Arafat: “I am finished practicing on the submachine gun of return... We swear to take vengeful blood from our enemies for our killed and wounded. We will board a bustling boat which will take us to Jaffa.” On the show, the girl then approached Arafat, who kissed her on both cheeks. The Inquirer continued:

"In a show about the opening of Palestinian schools, girls in frilly white dresses were shown dancing with Kalashnikov[?] rifles that they twirled like batons. In another broadcast, a schoolboy, asked what he got out of summer camp, answered: 'I am defending the homeland and undergo training like army drills.' "

"There is a children's quiz show about great figures in Palestinian history — many of whom are considered heroes by Palestinians, but terrorists by Israelis. One show featured Izz al-Din al-Qassam[?], a [[sheik] who was killed by the British in 1935. The military wing of Hamas, which has carried out many terrorist bombings in Israel, was named for Qassam. The heroine of another episode was Dalal al-Maghribi[?], a woman who commanded a bus hijacking near Haifa in 1978. Thirty-four Israelis and nine Palestinian commandos, Magribi among them, were killed. The quiz-show emcee referred to Magribi as "our sacred martyr."

Senior PA officials also regularly engage in hostile propaganda against Israel, and Arafat has taken no action against them. For example, the Deputy Minister of the PA Ministry of Supplies has accused Israel of giving Palestinian Arabs “food containing material that causes cancer and hormones that harm male virility and other spoiled food products in order to poison and harm the Palestinian population.” (Yediot Ahronot[?], June 25, 1997)

The PLO's representative to the United Nations in Geneva has accused Israel of injecting “300 Palestinian children with the HIV virus.” (Jerusalem Post, March 17, 1997)

The director of the Inspection Department of the PA Ministry of Supplies has claimed that Israeli chewing gums sold in PLO-controlled areas “contain a sexually-stimulating adrenaline substance.” (Jerusalem Post, March 27, 1997)

Senior PA officials and the PA-controlled media have also repeatedly made statements denigrating Jewish religious beliefs and Jewish history, such as denying that modern Jews have any connection to the Jews in the Bible; denying that Jews have any historical connection to Jerusalem; denying that the Temple Mount and Western Wall have any religious significance in Judaism; and claiming that biblical patriarchs such as Abraham were not Jews. Senior PA officials and the PA-controlled media have also repeatedly made statements distorting or denying the Holocaust.

In some cases, they have claimed that Jews invented the “myth” of Nazi genocide in order to gain world sympathy and reparations money. In other instances, they have acknowledged that some Jews were murdered by the Nazis, but charged that Jews vastly exaggerated the death toll for political purposes. Thus Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), Arafat's number-two man and the architect of the Oslo Accords, is the author of a book claiming that the Nazis may have really killed less than one million Jews. (Jerusalem Post, January 26, 1995) Numerous senior PA officials have also compared Israel to the Nazis, in some cases declaring that Israel's treatment of Arabs is even worse than the Nazis' treatment of Jews.

Holocaust denial in the Palestinian Authority

• "No more than 400,000 Jews were killed by the Nazis." "It is well-known that every year the Jews exaggerate what the Nazis did to them," said the moderator of a cultural affairs program on Palestinian Authority Television, during an August 25, 1997. "They claim there were 6 million killed, but precise scientific research demonstrates that there were no more than 400,000."

• "Zionists forged Holocaust claims." On Sept. 3, 1997, the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah featured an article by Palestinian Arab author Nabil Salam, which declared: "Since its establishment, the racist Zionist entity has been implementing various forms of terrorism on a daily basis which are a repetition of the Nazi terror. This proves the shared roots of Nazi and Zionist thought. This also explains the cooperation between the Jews and Nazis during World War II, through which was revealed the forged claims of the Zionists regarding the alleged acts of slaughter perpetrated against the Jews during the same period."

• "Zionists were partners with the Nazis in the Holocaust." Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), the number 2 official in the PLO and architect of the Oslo Accords, authored and has refused to retract a book claiming that "the Zionist movement was a partner in the slaughter of the Jews." The book is entitled The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and the Zionist Movement. The book also claims that the Nazis may have really killed less than one million Jews. (Jerusalem Post, Jan. 26,1995)

Sources of Arab Anti-Semitism from Arab sources, translated into English

Egyptian government newspaper reprints Nazi forgeries (http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=antisemitism&ID=SP33902)

Jews blamed for the September 11th World Trade Center attacks (http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=antisemitism&ID=SR00602)

Egyptian government science journal claims that the Jews deliberately spread AIDS (http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=antisemitism&ID=SP32201)

Saudi government newspaper claims that Jews are taking over the world (http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=antisemitism&ID=SP32101)

Zionism is accused of being the same as Nazism (http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=antisemitism&ID=SP22501)

Leader of Libya claims that the Jews deliberately spread AIDS (http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=antisemitism&ID=SP21401)

reflections of the Israeli Uri Avnery about Palestinians and Anti-semitism (http://www.nahost-politik.de/friedensbewegung/antisemitismus.htm)

Jewish-Arab dialogue

There are a number of projects working for peace among Israelis and Arabs, and projects which include Jewish-Islamic theological dialogue. One of their goals is to reduce anti-Semitism.

See also: Anti-Semitism, Judaism, Conspiracy theory, Islam and anti-Semitism