NEW YORK – The Palestinian Authority’s official television station has broadcast a religious sermon by one of its spiritual leaders declaring that “Jews deserve death.” The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), in response, is urging the Bush administration to suspend U.S. aid to the Palestinian Arabs.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “It is no mystery what inspires young Arabs to murder Jews. Their television station broadcasts sermons by their religious leaders declaring that Jews deserve death. The question is: why does the Bush administration continue to indirectly help sponsor this hatred, by giving the Palestinian Arabs $215-million each year?”
In a sermon broadcast on Gaza Palestine Satellite TV on March 12, 2004, Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris, speaking at the Zayid Bin-Sultan Mosque in Gaza, said, “life is a continuous struggle between right and falsehood and that such a struggle exists” today “between Palestinians and Jews.” He recalled with pride how Mohammed, founder of Israel, “dealt with the problem of Jewish existence before establishing the State of Islam in Medina” a reference to the slaughter of Jews in the 7th century CE Arabian peninsula.
The sheikh continued: “Here are the Jews today taking revenge for their grandfathers and ancestors, the sons of apes and pigs. Here are the extremist Jews demanding their rights. Some extremists even demand their rights in Medina. This is the extremist tendency of Jews. They are extremists and terrorists who deserve death, while we deserve life, since we have a just cause.” (Translation courtesy of the U.S. government’s Foreign Broadcast Information Service.)
Meanwhile, in a sermon broadcast on Gaza Palestine Satellite TV on March 26, 2004, Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris, speaking at the Zayid Bin-Sultan Mosque in Gaza, said: “O Allah, if we are unable to reply to the Jews, and if we are unable to avenge for the blood of the martyrs, they are within your power, O Almighty Allah. Show us the miracles of Your power on them. Show us a black day for the Jews.” He concluded his sermon by appealing to Allah to “shake the land under the Zionists and United States and its allies. O Allah, show us a black day for the Jews, the Americans, and their supporters. O Allah, avenge for the blood of our martyrs, besieged leaders, wounded, prisoners, and deportees. O God, remove the injustice on us.” (Translation courtesy of the U.S. government’s Foreign Broadcast Information Service.)