'I have Jewish friends supporting the Palestinian cause,' Hamdan says. Hamas aide: 'I have Jewish friends'

Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan on Monday defended a video interview of him repeating the “blood libel” slur — that Jews killed Christians and baked their blood into matzah — by saying that he had no problem with Jews as a people and even had Jewish friends.

“You cut the words — not you, the Israelis. They cut the facts and start this propaganda to say they are innocent,” Hamdan, videoing in from Qatar, said to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “I have Jewish friends supporting the Palestinian cause.”


Hamdan, however, did not unequivocally distance himself from the video, even after Blitzer pressed him multiple times. Instead, he cited Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and far-right Likud member Moshe Feiglin’s Aug. 1 Facebook post, in which Feiglin called for the “conquest of the Gaza Strip and eliminating all the warriors and their supporters,” as well as concentrating the civilians in camps by the Sinai. Hamdan likened Feiglin’s proposal to concentration camps for the Palestinians.

Hamdan then said that he had no problems with the Jews as a religion. It was just the occupation, he said, that was the problem, and would be a problem no matter the occupier’s religion.

“I was hoping for a flat denial that you’d utter such ridiculous words that Jews would kill Christians in order to bake matzah,” Blitzer said on his third and final attempt at an answer.

Hamdan demurred.

“Wolf, Wolf, Wolf, you have to be fair,” he said, explaining that he was just repeating what had been said before pivoting back to Feiglin’s words on the Palestinians.

Just before Hamdan’s interview, news came that the two sides had agreed to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire. Hamdan said that the Palestinians were committed to making it work.

“We, all Palestinians, will be committed to this unless the Israelis violate it,” Hamdan said. “We’re hoping the Israeli side will control itself and its soldiers in the field and keep the ceasefire.”