PA TV host and Muslim preacher:

"If a fish in the sea fights with another fish...

the Jews are behind it"

"Humanity will never live in comfort as long as the Jews

are causing devastating corruption throughout the land.

Humanity will never live in peace or fortune or tranquility

as long as they are corrupting the land"

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

The Jews are behind all that is wrong in the world, according to the host of a weekly Palestinian Authority TV program on Islam. Even when fish fight in the sea, "the Jews are behind it," said the Muslim preacher and professor of Quranic Studies, Imad Hamato. To back up this Antisemitic hate speech, Hamato went on to say that the Quran teaches that humanity will never "live in comfort... peace or fortune or tranquility" as long as "the Jews are causing devastating corruption throughout the land." The solution for Muslims, according to the professor, is to fight Jews: "Our real Jihad is to take revenge."

"Humanity will never live in comfort as long as the Jews are causing devastating corruption throughout the land. Humanity will never live in peace or fortune or tranquility as long as they are corrupting the land. An old man told me: If a fish in the sea fights with another fish, I am sure the Jews are behind it. As Allah says: ''Every time they kindled the fire of war [against you], Allah extinguished it. They strive throughout the land [causing] corruption, and Allah does not like corrupters'' (Sura 5:64)."

[Official PA TV, Feb. 27, 2015]

Only a month prior to Hamato's statement, Palestinian Media Watch reported on a cleric on official PA TV who taught that Jews are " apes and pigs " whose "hearts were sealed by Allah."

Antisemitism is a central component of PA ideology. In February, the Fatah-run TV channel Awdah broadcast a PA TV documentary that justifies the persecution of European Jews throughout history as an act of self-defense . According to the documentary, the Jews caused Europeans to suffer, who as a result wanted to get rid of the Jews. Therefore, according to the PA, European countries supported the establishment of the State of Israel.

The PA's religious hate speech has been adopted by and large by the Palestinian public. Last year, the Anti-Defamation League released a poll on Antisemitism around the world and found that Palestinians have the most "Antisemitic attitudes" in the world. [http://www.adl.org/press-center/press-releases/anti-semitism-international/adl-global-100-poll.html] The ADL survey found that 93% of adults in the West Bank and Gaza answered "probably true" to a majority of the Antisemitic stereotypes tested in the survey.

A few years ago, PMW documented that a young Palestinian girl used an expression similar to Hamato's statement that "the Jews are causing devastating corruption throughout the land" in an essay she wrote in a PA-funded magazine for youth. In her essay, the girl presented Hitler as someone to admire because he murdered Jews . In a dream, Hitler tells the girl: "I killed them [the Jews] so you would all know that they are a nation which spreads destruction all over the world." [Zayzafuna, February 2011]. Following PMW's exposure, UNESCO withdrew its funding of the magazine , and the magazine and its editors were widely condemned.

The following is a longer excerpt of the words of the Muslim preacher and host of the PA TV religious program, teaching that Jews are behind the world's problems:

Imad Hamato, Professor of Quranic Studies, University of Palestine, Gaza and host of weekly PA TV program on Islam:

"The Israelites went too far by [shedding] pure blood. If the Quran says: 'They killed prophets without right' (Sura 4:155), what can we say about those who are less than prophets - about the killing of the righteous and of Jihad fighters? This [Israel] is a state of blood, a terror state... Our real Jihad is to take revenge against those who have hurt our women and elderly, who have hurt innocents, have defiled the holy places and have stolen the assets and wealth of the [Arab] nation... Humanity will never live in comfort as long as the Jews are causing devastating corruption throughout the land. Humanity will never live in peace or fortune or tranquility as long as they are corrupting the land. An old man told me: If a fish in the sea fights with another fish, I am sure the Jews are behind it. As Allah says: ''Every time they kindled the fire of war [against you], Allah extinguished it. They strive throughout the land [causing] corruption, and Allah does not like corrupters'' (Sura 5:64)."

[Official PA TV, Feb. 27, 2015]