The Spectacle in Gaza — Are You Really Surprised?

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The world recoiled in horror last Thursday at the sight of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza parading around happily with the coffins of four Israelis whom Hamas had murdered: an elderly man, a young mother, and her two children, including a tiny baby. In a frenzy of cruelty, the Palestinians cheered and displayed the coffins as a sign of the great victory over the Israelis that they believe the ceasefire deal represents.

Though Hamas’ leftist backers in the West were notably silent, numerous supporters of Israel were aghast, asking how anyone could support people who celebrated the murders of their enemies in this way. The National Socialists didn’t do that. The Communist Chinese don’t do that. Yet while there were some German civilians who exposed themselves to immense danger by protecting Jews, not a single Gazan civilian made any effort to aid the Israeli hostages.

No one, however, should be surprised at the Gazans’ behavior. Their gruesome display of bloodlust and hatred was entirely in accord with principles they have stated numerous times. On November 3, 2011, Gaza’s Al-Aqsa TV aired a rally of the pro-Hamas Palestinian Al-Ahrar movement. A rally organizer said: “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.”

Condemnations of these evil statements did not rain down upon Al-Aqsa TV, and this rally was no singular occurrence. An Egyptian imam, Muhammad Hussein Ya’qoub, once declared: “We must believe that our fighting with the Jews is eternal, and it will not end until the final battle—and this is the fourth point. You must believe that we will fight, defeat, and annihilate them, until not a single Jew remains on the face of the Earth….As for you Jews—the curse of Allah upon you. The curse of Allah upon you, whose ancestors were apes and pigs. You Jews have sown hatred in our hearts, and we have bequeathed it to our children and grandchildren. You will not survive as long as a single one of us remains.”

Abdallah Jarbu, Hamas’ deputy minister of religious endowments, once said on Al-Aqsa TV: “May [Allah] annihilate this filthy people who have neither religion nor conscience. I condemn whoever believes in normalizing relations with them, whoever supports sitting down with them, and whoever believes that they are human beings. They are not human beings. They are not people. They have no religion, no conscience, and no moral values.”

Back in June 2013, the Jordanian newspaper Assawsana published an article by Muhammad Qasem Batayena chillingly and frankly entitled, “Let’s Kill the Jews Everywhere.” In it, Batayena insisted: “I’m not an extremist, nor racist…. I’m not bloodthirsty and not vengeful…. I’m not a terrorist and I’ve never been a killer.”

Nonetheless, he laments that “I am an Arab for sure,” but “our blood is permitted, while the blood of the apes and pigs is forbidden…because the Arab tyrants sold us for a cheap price and served us on golden plates as sacrifice for the Zionists.” Batayena was referring to the Jews as “apes and pigs” in accord with the Qur’an, which says that Allah transformed disobedient Jews into those animals (2:63-5; 5:59-60; 7:166).

Batayena saw a brighter future ahead: “Yes, we will triumph, pray in Jerusalem and take revenge on the filthy murderers…. [W]e will kill them wherever we find them, as the Holy Qur’an told us…. [W]e will make them taste the taste of death, in which they became masters all over the Islamic and Arab lands…. Yes, we will kill them, and I swear that if I get the chance, I won’t miss it…since I believe in Allah and his Messenger, and I know that this world is nothing but the enjoyment of a delusion.” The exhortation to “kill them wherever you find them” appears three times in the Qur’an (2:191, 4:89, 9:5); and the statement “what is the life of this world except the enjoyment of delusion” is also Qur’anic (3:185).

These are the kinds of teachings Palestinian Arabs in Gaza have heard all their lives. In light of that, it is a wonder that their display on Thursday was so restrained.