An imam based in Philadelphia has delivered a number of anti-Semitic sermons in recent months, calling Jews “the vilest people” and accusing the late former prime minister Menachem Begin of slitting the stomach of a pregnant woman as part of a “bet.”

Speaking to members of the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society in Philadelphia in mid-February, Imam Abdelmohsen Abouhatab, who is of Egyptian origin, accused the “nefarious” Jewish media of causing people to see Muslims as “oppressive and predatory lions,” the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which obtained a recording of the sermon, reported.

“The Jews are the vilest people in terms of their moral values, their nature, and their violation of agreements, but when they lived near Arabs, they adopted some of their moral values and customs,” Abouhatab said.

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MEMRI partially transcribed and aired excerpts of his sermons from November 2018 through February 2019.

In that same recording, Abouhatab said “the enemies of Allah” were now freely touring [Arab] capitals [a reference to visits made in recent months by Israeli officials] and they order the heads [of state] to come to the table at the Knesset. They sit there and plot against their people, according to what the others want.”

He further claimed that during the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, the killing of Palestinians refugees by Christian Phalangists in Beirut, Begin made bets on whether a pregnant woman was carrying a boy or a girl before slitting her belly open to find out.

“Remember Sabra and Shatila. Remember the wars of the past. Remember how Menachem Begin, that Polish crook, would stand next to a pregnant woman, and would make bets whether it is a boy or a girl. He would make bets, while the woman was still alive! Then he would slut [sic] her belly open, while she was still alive, to see whether it is a boy or a girl. Just like that. This happened. This happened,” Abouhatab claimed.

In a January sermon, Abouhatab claimed that the media was controlled by the Jews, who make people think that “power lies with 15 million people who own and control the riches of the world.”

Abouhatab’s sermons were streamed live on the mosque’s YouTube channel.