Connect with us

RSS

Arabs Massacred Jews in the Holy Land Before Israel Existed — and the Media Has No Clue

The remains of a Jewish home ransacked during the 1929 Hebron massacre. Photo: public domain.

October 7, 2023, was the largest massacre of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust. Hamas and other Iranian-backed proxies invaded Israel, murdering 1,200 people and taking hundreds of hostages. Many of the victims were killed in the most gruesome fashion imaginable: parents were tortured in front of their children, the elderly were slaughtered at bus stops, families were burned alive in their own homes, babies murdered in cribs, all while gleeful terrorists proudly filmed their handiwork.

October 7 was also the largest invasion and attack by Islamist terrorists in modern history. It was part of an attempted genocide by a group that calls for Israel’s destruction.

The Washington Post, however, calls it “armed resistance.”

This was the phrase used in the Post’s Aug. 28, 2024, dispatch, “What to know about Palestinian militant groups operating in the West Bank.”

Ostensibly a primer about terrorist groups operating in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), the article misinformed more than it informed.

The Post’s Claire Parker claimed that “Palestinians have engaged in armed resistance since the state’s founding in 1948, when an estimated 750,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes.”

Notably “armed resistance” is a euphemism used by US-designated terrorist groups like Hamas to refer to terrorism. Parker is literally echoing terrorist rhetoric. She’s also dead wrong.

In fact, Arab terrorist groups were targeting, attacking, and murdering Jews decades before Israel was recreated.

Indeed, there are entire books on the subject (Yeshoua Porath’s two volume, The Emergence of the Palestinian Arab National Movement, while 50 years old, is perhaps the most comprehensive). Evidence on the score is both abundant and part of the historical record; it is highlighted in numerous histories, newspaper accounts of the day, and memoirs.

Hamas even names its “Qassam rockets” after Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, an Islamist cleric born in what is today Syria, and who perpetrated terrorist attacks until he was killed by British policemen in November 1935. Hamas also has the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, which perpetrate terrorist attacks.

And Qassam was not alone in his efforts to murder Jews.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Palestinian terrorist groups like the Green Hand, the Black Hand, and others, murdered Jews, officials from the British Mandatory government that controlled the area after World War I, and Arab critics.

CAMERA has highlighted this important history in numerous op-eds throughout the years, including in National Review, Mosaic magazine, and, most recently The Washington Times. As CAMERA noted in an April 14, 2020, essay for Mosaic, “Century-Old Lessons from a Jerusalem Pogrom,” these terrorist groups resented any social and political equality with Jews and perpetrated organized mass violence as early as 1920. In the nearly three decades before Israel was recreated, hundreds of attacks occurred, with hundreds of victims.

As CAMERA detailed in an Oct. 17, 2023 Washington Times Op-Ed, entitled “Palestinian terrorists have been murdering babies for a century,” and the terrorists often murdered their victims in the most depraved manner possible.

In 1929 in Hebron, for example, one British policeman, RJ Cafferata, later testified that he discovered “an Arab cutting off a child’s head with a sword.” Cafferata shot him dead before seeing another terrorist armed with a dagger and “standing over a woman covered with blood.” The policemen killed him. Women were raped en masse. Many were tortured.

A Dutch-Canadian journalist, Pierre Van Paassen, detailed the aftermath at one rabbi’s house: “the rooms looked like a slaughterhouse…Not a single item had been left intact except a large black-and-white photograph of Dr. Theodore Herzl.”

The murderers, he noted, had “draped the blood-drenched underwear of a woman” around the picture frame. Van Paassen later described how he wanted to “gather up the severed sexual organs and the cut-off sexual organs and the cut-off breasts we had seen lying over the floor and in the beds.” A Jewish baker, Noah Imerman, was burned to death in a kerosene stove.

A week after the massacre in Hebron, another unfolded in Safed. One eyewitness, David Hacohen, later testified that he saw “homes set on fire” and victims “stabbed to pieces,” their bodies “mutilated and burned.” The terrorists even targeted an orphanage, where they “smashed the children’s heads and cut off their hands” before burning the building.

These events are thoroughly documented. The British government held hearings on them, and Western newspapers reported on them at the time. The Middle East analyst Oren Kessler highlighted them in his 2023 bestseller Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict, which detailed, at length, the various terror groups operating in British-ruled Mandate Palestine in the 1930s. It is utterly disqualifying for someone to be writing about the Israel-Islamist conflict today not to be aware of this relevant history.

Indeed, many of the details — homes being incinerated, mass rape, and sexual violence, children being murdered, the elderly tortured — keenly illustrate that the Palestinian terrorists who perpetrated the October 7 massacre have much in common with their forebearers who murdered Jews one hundred years ago.

To acknowledge this, however, is tantamount to admitting that Arab terrorists aren’t murdering Jews because of the creation of Israel, or the existence of “settlements,” or “1967 lines.” Rather they resent any political or social equality with Jews. As terrorists screamed during the 1920 massacre in Jerusalem: “the Jews are our dogs.”

This sentiment was highlighted in a May 13, 2011, Hamas Al-Aqsa TV interview with Sara Jaber, a 92-year-old woman who looked back at the Hebron massacre with fondness. “We, the people of Hebron, massacred the Jews. My father massacred them and brought back some stuff,” according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute. “Massacred the Jews.”

Or as the Washington Post’s Claire Parker, would call it “armed resistance.”

Notably, Parker’s claim about terrorism beginning in 1948 omits other relevant details, not least of which is that Zionists accepted, and Arab leaders rejected, numerous offers for a “two-state solution.”

Indeed, the 1948 war — which became Israel’s War of Independence — erupted when the Arab League and Palestinian Arab leaders rejected a UN partition plan that would’ve created something that hadn’t ever existed: a Palestinian Arab state.

Yet Arab leaders were unwilling to accept such a state if it meant living peacefully next to a Jewish one. Accordingly, they sought to “annihilate” the Jewish state, openly seeking to commit another genocide a mere three years after World War II and the Holocaust.

Arab nations, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood and the so-called Army of the Holy War, attacked the fledgling nation. Estimates of Arab refugees vary, with the “750,000” figure cited by Parker being on the high end. Notably, Parker omits the more than 800,000 Jewish refugees from Muslim lands who were exiled because of that conflict. Omitting rejected offers for Palestinian statehood and peace and Jewish refugees, while claiming that terrorism was due to Israel’s creation is, as they say, “a tell” — it reveals Parker’s bias. So too is referring to terrorism as “armed resistance.”

Yet, this isn’t the first time that Parker has regurgitated language used by terror groups like Hamas.

Hours after the October 7 attack, Parker filed a dispatch claiming that an Israeli counterterrorist raid on Al-Aqsa mosque “stoked tensions,” leading to the attack by the terror group. But as CAMERA has highlighted, Palestinian terrorist groups have long used the false claim that Jews seek to damage or destroy the mosque to incite anti-Jewish violence.

The founding father of Palestinian nationalism, Amin al-Husseini, did precisely that leading up to the 1929 massacres detailed above — massacres in which more than 133 Jewish men, women, and children were murdered, and 339 were injured. There are even entire reports highlighting how Palestinian leaders employ what the scholar Nadav Shragai has called the “Al-Aqsa is in danger” libel prior to attacks.

More to the point, evidence indicates that the October 7 massacre — called “Al-Aqsa Flood” by Hamas — took years to plan and was massive in both scope and ambition. This was obvious within hours of the attack itself. Parker’s decision to parrot Hamas claims that the attack was the result of a recent counterterrorist raid indicates more than just ignorance about the history of the “Al Aqsa” libel and terrorist rhetoric — it shows a remarkable lack of common sense or, less diplomatically, intelligence.

As The Washington Post unintentionally proves, there is a great deal of difference between being a reporter with deep historical understanding and being a stenographer for terrorist groups.

The writer is a Senior Research Analyst for CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.

The post Arabs Massacred Jews in the Holy Land Before Israel Existed — and the Media Has No Clue first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Post Views: 618
Related Topics:
Continue Reading

RSS

Marco Rubio Says US Denying Visas to Foreigners ‘Celebrating’ Assassination of Charlie Kirk

Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that the US is denying visas to foreigners who publicly celebrate the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, a move he cast as part of a broader posture against extremist rhetoric.

While traveling in the Middle East, Rubio told reporters that the State Department has been denying visas to individuals glorifying Kirk’s murder online. He added that officials are also reviewing existing visas and that he expects some to be revoked.

“It isn’t just about Charlie Kirk. If you’re a foreigner and you’re out there celebrating the assassination of someone who was speaking somewhere, I mean, we don’t want you in the country,” Rubio said. “Why would we want to give a visa to someone who think it’s good that someone was murdered in the public square? That’s just common sense to me.”

When asked if the US has actually revoked any visas yet, Rubio responded, “We’ve revoked visas of people. I don’t know if we’ve revoked visas of people that are inside the country. We’ve most certainly been denying visas.”

Rubio also addressed the issue in a social media post on X while sharing a video from a Fox News interview during which he was asked if he planned to restrict visa access or revoke visas for those celebrating Kirk’s killing.

“America will not host foreigners who celebrate the death of our fellow citizens,” Rubio said in the post accompanying the video. “Visa revocations are under way. If you are here on a visa and cheering on the public assassination of a political figure, prepare to be deported. You are not welcome in this country.”

Kirk, a prominent conservative activist and founder of the influential Turning Point USA organization, was shot and killed last week while speaking at Utah Valley University. Authorities have formally charged 22‑year‑old Tyler Robinson of Utah with aggravated murder and several related offenses, including discharge of a firearm, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering.

Rubio’s announcement comes amid intensifying efforts by the Trump administration to expel foreigners who express support for violence or terrorism. The administration has launched an overhaul of the US visa system, part of what officials describe as an effort to root out individuals deemed a potential threat to the country. The sweeping measures include expanded social media vetting for new applicants, continuous monitoring of the 55 million current visa holders, and the revocation of thousands of student visas.

Several of the online posts praising Kirk’s assassination have emerged from the Middle East, with individuals condemning the slain political activist over his vocal support for Israel. During his life, Kirk repeatedly spoke in defense of the Jewish state and expressed support for its military campaign in Gaza.

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau concurred with Rubio’s statement, calling on consular officials to prevent the distribution of visas to anyone “praising, rationalizing, or making light of” the murder of Kirk.

Rubio has not explained the standards the State Department is using to determine what qualifies as “celebrating” the assassination. Some critics have speculated that this ambiguity could set up legal challenges from advocacy groups, who are already warning about the First Amendment and due process implications.

Post Views: 57
Continue Reading

RSS

‘Down With Fascists’: Columbia Activist Who Said ‘Zionists Don’t Deserve to Live’ Celebrates Charlie Kirk’s Murder

Khymani James, Columbia University student who filmed himself saying Zionists should be murdered. Photo: Screenshot

A former leader of the anti-Israel movement at Columbia University expressed full support for the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last week.

Khymani James, who made the posts, was a “campus a leader in the pro-Palestinian student protest encampment” at Columbia, according to The New York Times.

In the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination, James posted on X, “More. MORE!!!,” referencing the killing. He followed up that post by saying, “Down with all the fascists 😍.” (He later also called California Gov. Gavin Newsom a fascist.)

In another post, James wrote, “‘Be careful what you post’ and it’s people rightfully celebrating the inevitable and just fate of fascists. anywho… NO ONE MOURNS THE WICKED 😩🤣.”

In addition to the posts he wrote, James also reposted statements such as “Thoughts and prayers for the bullet,” “rest in piss,” and “saw that s–t and started giggling and kicking my feet and shouting YOOOOOO.”

In James’s biography on the social platform X, he notes, “Anything I said, I meant it. DEATH TO EMPIRE.”

This is not the first time James has rhetorically supported violence. Last year, he was on video saying, “Zionists don’t deserve to live,” and proclaiming that people should “be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”

He also said, “I don’t fight to injure or for there to be a winner or a loser. I fight to kill.”

The comments triggered widespread backlash, and James was suspended by Columbia. The incident also resulted in what was widely seen as an apology for James on behalf of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), one of the most notorious anti-Israel campus groups in the US. Months later, however, the group retracted its previous apology.

“All CUAD organizers were complicit in not maintaining our political line, keeping the statement public on our Instagram, and in neglecting the mental and physical safety of Khymani,” the post read. CUAD apologized for causing “irrevocable harm” to him.

Despite James’s comments about the possibility of murdering Zionists, CUAD’s post claimed that he was criticized and socially ostracized for “fight[ing] back against state violence.”

James also responded to this post, writing on X, “Thank you to my comrades for posting this beautiful, powerful letter. I never wrote the neo-liberal apology posted in late April, and I’m glad we’ve set the record straight once and for all. I will not allow anyone to shame me for my politics.”

“Anything I said, I meant it,” he concluded.

Kirk, 31, was shot and killed during a speaking event at Utah Valley University, where he was engaging in dialogue with students. He is survived by his wife and two young children. A young Utah man — Tyler Robinson, 22 — was taken into custody last week as the suspected shooter, about 33 hours after the assassination, according to state and federal law enforcement.

Kirk was an outspoken supporter of Israel and advocate against antisemitism. He regularly debated students on the subject of Israel and brought his ideas to young people at a time when, according to recent polling, that age group was turning decidedly against the Jewish state.

“There’s a dark Jew hate out there, and I see it,” Kirk told a student during a podcast episode which aired earlier this year. “Don’t get yourself involved in that. I’m telling you it will rot your brain. It’s bad for your soul. It’s bad. It’s evil. I think it’s demonic.”

Post Views: 56
Continue Reading

RSS

Spain’s PM Sánchez Faces Backlash for Fueling Anti-Israel Hostility Amid Surge in Antisemitic Incidents

Cycling – Vuelta a Espana – Stage 21 – Alalpardo to Madrid – Madrid, Spain – Sept. 14, 2025: Barriers are smashed by anti-Israel protesters during Stage 21. Photo: REUTERS/Ana Beltran

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is facing backlash from his country’s political leaders and Jewish community, who accuse him of fueling antisemitic hostility after incidents at the Vuelta a España disrupted the prestigious cycling race.

Amid a sharp rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes and anti-Israel sentiment, Lorenzo Rodríguez, mayor of Castrillo Mota de Judíos in northern Spain, accused the country’s leader of “fueling a discourse of hatred” against Israel and the Jewish people.

“The government is fostering antisemitism that will prove deeply damaging for Spain,” Rodríguez said in an interview with the local outlet El Español.

“Sánchez’s moves are less about serious foreign policy and more about deflecting attention from his trials and failures in governance,” he continued. “Spain isn’t leading anything — it’s merely whitewashing Hamas and other terrorist groups.”

On Sunday, anti-Israel protests forced the finale of the Vuelta a España cycle race to be abandoned as police tried to quell demonstrations against the participation of an Israeli team.

In his interview, Rodríguez blamed Sánchez for fostering a hostile climate in Spain, saying the country is witnessing “hatred toward an entire people.”

He also criticized the Spanish leader for failing to take a strong stand on other international crises, including those in Russia and Venezuela.

“We all recognize that the Palestinian people are suffering, but the solution cannot be to blame the Jewish people,” Rodríguez said.

“People are afraid. There’s growing concern because our town was recently targeted,” he continued. “We are being singled out and threatened even though we have nothing to do with this war.”

Before the incidents on Sunday that led to the race’s cancellation, Sánchez expressed “admiration for the Spanish people mobilizing for just causes like Palestine” through their protests.

Madrid’s Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida strongly condemned Sánchez’s statement, accusing him of encouraging hostility and fueling tensions.

“The prime minister is directly responsible for this violence, as his statements this morning helped instigate the protests,” Martinez-Almeida said after the race was canceled.

“Today is the saddest day since I took office as mayor of this great city,” he continued.

Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Vox party, also criticized Sánchez’s remarks, accusing him of stoking division to maintain his hold on power.

“The psychopath has taken his militias to the streets,” Abascal wrote in a post on X. “He doesn’t care about Gaza. He doesn’t care about Spain. He doesn’t care about anything. But he wants violence in the streets to maintain power.”

Shortly after the incidents, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) publicly denounced the violence, urging authorities to respond quickly and decisively.

“Violence and intimidation have no place in a democratic society and cannot be excused under the guise of freedom of expression,” FCJE said in a statement.

“These violent demonstrations fuel hatred and contribute to a concerning rise in antisemitism in Spain, which we have been warning about over the past two years,” the statement read. “It is unacceptable that violence is justified on ideological grounds and hostility is directed toward the Jewish community”

Since the start of the war in Gaza, Spain has become one of Israel’s fiercest critics, a stance that has only intensified in recent months, coinciding with a shocking rise in antisemitic incidents targeting the local Jewish community — from violent assaults and vandalism to protests and legal actions.

On Monday, Sánchez called for Israel to be barred from international sports events after pro-Palestinian activists disrupted the finale of the Vuelta cycling race in chaotic scenes in Madrid.

“The sports organizations should ask whether it’s ethical for Israel to continue participating in international competitions. Why was Russia expelled after invading Ukraine, yet Israel is not expelled after the invasion of Gaza?” Sánchez said while speaking to members of his Socialist Party.

“Until the barbarity ends, neither Russia nor Israel should be allowed to participate in any international competition,” the Spanish leader continued.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned Sánchez’s remarks, labeling him “an antisemite and a liar.”

“Did Israel invade Gaza on Oct. 7th or did the Hamas terror state invade Israel and commit the worst massacre against the Jews since the Holocaust?” the top Israeli diplomat wrote in a post on X.

The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas started the war in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, when it led an invasion of southern Israel, murdered 1,200 people, and kidnapped 251 hostages while perpetrating widespread sexual violence against the Israeli people.

Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military capabilities and political rule in Gaza.

As part of its anti-Israel campaign, Spain announced on Tuesday that it will boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest if Israel participates, citing the country’s military offensive against Hamas in the war-torn enclave.

Last week, Sánchez also unveiled new policies targeting Israel over the war in Gaza, including an arms embargo and a ban on certain Israeli goods.

The Spanish government announced it would bar entry to individuals involved in what it called a “genocide against Palestinians,” block Israel-bound ships and aircraft carrying weapons from Spanish ports and airspace, and enforce an embargo on products from Israeli communities in the West Bank.

In one of its latest attempts to curb Israel’s defensive campaign in Gaza, Spain has canceled a €700 million ($825 million) deal for Israeli-designed rocket launchers, as the government conducts a broader review to systematically phase out Israeli weapons and technology from its armed forces.

Saar has denounced Sánchez’s latest actions, accusing the government in Madrid of antisemitism and of pursuing an escalating anti-Israel campaign aimed at undermining the Jewish state on the international stage.

“The government of Spain is leading a hostile, anti-Israel line, marked by wild, hate-filled rhetoric,” Saar wrote in a post on X, accusing Sánchez’s “corrupt” administration of trying to “divert attention from grave corruption scandals.”

“The obsessive activism of the current Spanish government against Israel stands out in light of its ties with dark, tyrannical regimes — from Iran’s ayatollahs to [Nicolás] Maduro’s government in Venezuela,” the Israeli diplomat continued.

Post Views: 59
Continue Reading

Copyright © 2017 - 2023 Jewish Post & News