Introduction: Israel´s leaving the Gaza Strip is being presented by the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas as a victory for Islam.

Palestinian Authority religious leaders and Hamas have for years been presenting their conflict with Israel as part of an unbroken religious war, which Allah is waging against Jews - a conflict whose climax will be the extermination of the world´s Jews. (Palestinian Media Watch has reported on this ideology. See documentation below.)

Within this context, Israel´s leaving its towns in Gaza now, is being presented as a victory of Islam in this war. Palestinian Authority Television hosts and participants alike are calling the Israeli moves from its towns as a ´great victory for Allah´.

The Hamas website publicized numerous posters that declare the same religious victory theme. The Hamas poster below, showing a face of Hamas founder Ahmad Yassin laughing, superimposed over a somber religious Jew, presents the Sharon evacuation plan as a victory of the Koran over the Talmud. The words on the poster: "Our Koran proves that we were right and your Talmud proves that you were wrong..."

Another Hamas poster shows a rifle and the Koran with the words: "With those two together the victory has been achieved."

One example from the Palestinian Authority´s official daily:

"...The manager of the office of the Ministry of the Waqf in northern Gaza, Farid Al-Nayard, said, ´...last Friday’s sermon was under the title ‘On that day the Believers will be glad with the victory of Allah.´´" [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, August 13, 2005]

In June 2004 Palestinian Authority religious leader Ibrahim Mudayris already preached the religious significance he saw in Sharon´s plan, connecting it to an event described in the Koran, specifically focusing on Israel´s plan to destroy the towns before leaving.

The Koranic event and the present expulsion, according to this senior PA imam, have numerous parallels:

1. Attacks by Muslims against Jews
2. Jews become fearful
3. Jews destroy their own homes
4. Jews flee their towns

Mudayris´ sermon of June 4, 2004

"If you [today] trust in Allah, like Muhammad´s companions, by Allah, it will not be impossible for Allah to expel the Jews…

"[Allah] fought against them [as is written in the Koran] through their weak hearts because they are cowards. When they saw someone killed, terror entered their hearts and they started destroying their own homes.

"And now the media reports that they will leave the settlements. Indeed, they will leave Gaza. They will leave submissive, by Allah´s will. They will leave defeated, like it or not, in the face of this great victory." [Ibrahim Mudayris, PA TV, June 4, 2004]

The following is the text Mudayris was referring to in the Koran:

"He [Allah] is the one who has caused those of the People of the Book [i.e. Jews] who disbelieved to leave their homes unto the first expulsion. You did not think that they would leave, whereas they [the Jews] were certain that their fortresses would defend them against Allah. But Allah reached them from a place where they did not expect, and cast terror in their hearts so that they destroyed their homes with their own hands and the hands of the believers...!" [Surat Al-Hashar]

From the Archives

Previously reported examples of numerous Palestinian Authority religious and academic leaders presenting the war against Israel as a religious war that will end with the extermination of the Jews.

1. Muhammad Abd Al Hadi La’afi, responsible for Religious Teaching and Instruction in the Office of the Wakf:

"The battle with the Jews will surely come...

"The Prophet spoke about in more than one Hadith and the Resurrection will not come without the victory of the believers [the Muslims] over the descendants of the monkeys and pigs and with their annihilation."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 18, 2001]

2. Ibrahim Mudayris, Head of the Association for Memorizing the Koran

"The Prophet said: the Resurrection will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims kill them. The Muslims will kill the Jews, rejoice [in it], rejoice in Allah’s victory. The Muslims will kill the Jews, and he will hide...

"The Prophet said: the Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: oh servant of Allah, oh Muslim this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!"
[PA TV, September 10, 2004 - view this clip here]

"The Jews will not live under our rule agreeably permanently, since they have been treacherous in nature throughout history. A day will come when all shall rest from the Jews...

"Listen to your Beloved [Muhammad], who tells you about the most dire end awaiting the Jews. The tree and the stone want the Muslim to bring every Jew to his end. You all know the Hadith." [PA TV, May 13, 2005 - view this clip here]

3. Muhammad Ibrahim Madi

"All the weapons must be aimed at the Jews, Allah’s enemies, the cursed nation in the Koran, whom Allah describes as monkeys and pigs, worshippers of the calf and idol worshippers…

"Nothing will deter them except the color of blood in their filthy nation … unless we blow ourselves up, willingly and as our duty, in their midst…

"We will fight against them and rule over them until the Jew will hide behind the tree and rock and the tree and rock will say: ´Muslim! Servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, kill him."
[PA TV, August 3, 2001]

4. Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiya, Sharia [Islamic Law] Rulings Council and Rector of Advanced Studies, Islamic University

"We the Palestinian nation, our fate from Allah is to be the vanguard of the war against the Jews until resurrection as the prophet Muhammad said: ´Resurrection will not arrive until you will fight the Jews and kill them.´ We the Palestinians are the vanguard in this issue and in this campaign whether or not we want this." [PA TV, July 28, 2000]

5 . Dr. Hassan Khater

"Muhammad said in his Hadith: ’The Hour [of Resurrection] will not arrive until you fight the Jews and the rock and the tree will say: O Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!’

"...Allah meant our land and our people and meant our trees and our stones."
[PA TV, December 27, 2004]