Last week, a top Hamas leader called for his Palestinian brethren around the world to commence hostility against “every Jew on the globe by way of slaughter and killing.” Senior Hamas leader Fathi Hammad made the disturbing remarks during a rally at the Israel-Gaza border.
At the event, Hammad proclaimed, “Our patience has run out. We are on the verge of exploding. If this siege is not undone, we will explode in the face of our enemies, with God’s permission and glory. The explosion is not only going to be in Gaza, but also in the [West] Bank and abroad, if God wills.”
The top Hamas leader went on to say, “But our brothers are still preparing. They are trying to prepare. They are warming up. A long time has passed with them warming up. All of you 7 million Palestinians abroad, enough of the warming up. You have Jews everywhere and we must attack every Jew on the globe by way of slaughter and killing, if God permits. Enough of the warming up.”
Hammad’s violent remarks occurred after Israeli soldiers fatally shot a 28-year-old Hamas member. Reportedly, the incident happened as a result of the person being “misidentified.” According to The Jerusalem Post, Israel apologized for the shooting.
So, how did Hammad’s radical Islamic militant group respond to his hate-filled comments? Surprisingly, the notorious organization the European Union and the United States deems a terrorist group, condemned Hammad’s remarks with an official statement on July 15, 2019. The Washington Examiner reported that another Hamas official also maintained that Hammad’s comments were “personal statements that do not represent Hamas.”
After the rebuke from Hamas, Hammad allegedly tried to walk back his aggressive comments. The senior Hamas leader issued a statement on the organization’s website. In it, Hammad insisted that he supports “Hamas’s consistent, adopted policy of limiting its resistance to the Zionist occupation that usurps Palestine’s land and defiles its holy sites.” He also stated, “Our resistance to this usurping entity will continue in all its forms whether that is armed or popular peaceful struggle.”
As Hammad attempted to make an about-face, Israeli diplomat Ofir Gendelman posted a tweet with a link to a video of the top Hamas leader. In the tweet, Gendelman said, “Watch: Senior Hamas leader Fathi Hammad says Hamas has built a new factory for making suicide vests that will be given to Palestinian girls (and boys) in order to storm the Israeli border and blow up Israeli families. Now you know why we protect the border with Gaza from Hamas.”
Amidst the continuing struggle along the Israeli-Gaza border, U.S. Attorney General William Barr spoke at a Department of Justice summit against anti-Semitism on July 15. During his speech, Barr stated that the U.S. government wouldn’t “tolerate” anti-Semitic incidents against Jews. He also likened anti-Semitism to a “cancer” on the country’s society. Beginning his comments, Barr said that he is “deeply concerned about the rise in hate crimes and political violence that we have seen over the past decade. And this trend has included a marked increase in reported instances of anti-Semitic hate crimes.”
Continuing, the Attorney General stated, “The most ancient and stubborn form of racism throughout Western history has been anti-Semitism. Hostility or prejudice against the Jewish people has manifested itself in the organized violence of pogroms, expulsions, and massacres. Within living memory, these genocidal acts reached the unimaginable scale and evil of the Holocaust.”
“I think of the various forms of anti-Semitism as very much like different kinds of cancer,” Barr added. “A healthy body with a strong immune system can have success in preventing cancer from emerging or spreading. But if the immune system weakens, cancer can emerge. Some might be localized, but others can rapidly metastasize and become systemic. Just like a physical body, a body politic must have an immune system that resists anti-Semitism and other forms of racial hatred.”
In light of Hammad’s recent remarks, Barr’s comments couldn’t ring truer.
