The following are highlights of research and translations from the MEMRI Lantos Archives on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial this past year. Producing such content is very costly, and your help allows us to continue our vital work of supporting counterterrorism efforts in the U.S. and throughout the West. We are very grateful to those of our valued readers who have already donated this year, and ask those who have not yet done so to please consider making a tax-deductible donation now.
The following are selected MEMRI TV clips from the Lantos Archives in 2022, on a variety of topics.
Iraqi Islamic scholar Fares Al-Azawi said in an October 12, 2022 show on Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas-Gaza) that the Zionists had colluded with the Nazis, that it is a "myth" that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and that the Nuremberg Trials had been a sham and part of a Zionist scheme to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. He also cited French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy and said that former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir had colluded with the Nazis in 1941.
Bassam Al-Agha of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's "Al-Quds" Trade Union in Syria said in an August 21, 2022 show on Palestine Today TV (Gaza) that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion should be part of Arab school curricula and that Arab students should learn about the "goals and the danger of the Jews and about "how the Jews think". He also cited Quranic verses about Jews' hostility to the Muslims and to humanity, and he criticized the West for considering this to be hate speech."
In a Friday sermon at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Imam Saleh Bin Al-Humayd prayed to Allah to "bring annihilation upon the plundering and occupying Jews" and to protect the Muslims from their evil. The video of the sermon was posted to Al-Kalam Al-Tayyib YouTube channel on July 29, 2022. It should be noted that recently, a Jewish Israeli journalist defied the ban on non-Muslims entering Mecca and snuck into the city, sparking a controversy.
In a July 21, 2022 show on the Arab language Muslim-Brotherhood-affiliated Channel 9 (Turkey), Dr. Quds Al-Samaraai, an Islamic scholar who heads the International Center for Islamic Da'wah in Indonesia, spoke about Israel's official apology for an Israeli journalist having snuck into the Islamic holy city of Mecca, in violation of a ban of non-Muslims, on July 18, 2022. Dr. Al-Samaraai said that it must be assumed that Israel's apology was made in bad faith because Allah has taught the Muslims in the Quran that the Jews and the Zionists cannot be trusted. He explained that the Quran compares Jews to apes and pigs, in order to teach Muslims that only force is effective against the Jews, and he elaborated that employing diplomatic and political means against Israel and the Jews is futile. Rather, Dr. Al-Samaraai said that the Islamic nations will only consider accepting Israel's apology when the Israelis leave every "last inch" of Palestinian land and compensate the Palestinians financially. He added: "What was taken by force will be regained only by force."
PA presidential advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash defended Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's statement, according to which Israel has committed "50 holocausts" against Palestinians in an address that was aired on Palestine TV on August 17, 2022. He said that all the leaders of the [Israeli] occupation joined together in attacking Abbas, because he is defending his people and he wants to remind the world of the massacres against them. Al-Habbash added that the Israelis "want us to forget history, while they want the world to remember a history which is mostly forged, exaggerated, fabricated, with no basis in reality." He further said that saying these things cannot be considered "antisemitism" because the Palestinians are the "genuine Semites," as reflected in their names and cities. For more information on Abbas's statements in a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, see MEMRITV clip no 9761.
Syrian Israeli affairs expert Muhammad Nasour said in an August 4, 2022 show on the Arabic-language Al-Alam Syria TV (Iran) that the goal of the Zionist movement is to exterminate the Palestinians or other nations by any means necessary, including nuclear bombs. He said that the Zionists had even been behind the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and he explained that all the wars, killing, and destruction the world has witnessed is a product of the "Talmudic mind, which later produced The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." Nasour also claimed that the rabbis of Hamburg, Germany had had an "agreement" with senior Nazi official Adolf Eichmann regarding the "so-called" Holocaust and the Nazi concentration camps. He claimed that only sick and disabled people died in the "so-called" camps, that the number of deaths had been "inflated" to millions, and that the furnaces used to burn the Jews "could not possibly be used" for burning people.
In an Eid Al-Adha sermon in Copenhagen, Hizb ut-Tahrir-affiliated Danish Imam Mundhir Abdallah criticized Muslim World League Secretary-General Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa for having prayed for the souls of the Jews who had perished in Auschwitz during the "alleged Holocaust" (for more about Al-Issa, see MEMRI TV Clips Nos. 7755, 7772, 7760, and 7859). Imam Abdallah also criticized him for calling for friendly relations with Jews and Christians. In addition, Imam Abdallah said that Al-Issa, Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, and UAE President Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan are "immoral enemies of Allah". When speaking about a recent shooting at a Copenhagen mall by a mentally ill man, Imam Abdallah added that most Westerners are mentally ill. The sermon was posted on July 9, 2022 to Imam Abdallah's YouTube channel.
In a Friday, June 24, 2022 sermon at Muslim Youth Victoria, Canadian Imam Younus Kathrada described homosexuality as an "abomination, an immorality, an indecency, a shameful deed," and he spoke about the severe punishment of the people of Sodom. In addition, Kathrada played for Allah to annihilate the "plundering" and "criminal" Jews, and to make the Muslims rejoice by returning the Al-Aqsa Mosque to Muslim control. The sermon was posted on the Muslim Youth Victoria YouTube channel
SUPPORT OUR WORK
Mehdi Taeb, the head of Iran's Ammar Strategic Advisory Base that advises Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said in an April 28, 2022 show on Channel 3 (Iran) that the Holocaust was a lie meant to lead to the creation of Israel. He said that nobody is allowed to "touch" the Holocaust, because this would "break" it and pose a challenge to Israel's survival. In addition, Taeb said that Zionism and Israel are Satan's "top students", and that the Zionists and the Jews control oil and gold reserves in the world. He elaborated that Israel is a "cancerous growth" that must be "operated on." Moreover, he said that Jerusalem is the Zionists' "main artery," and that striking it would cause everything to collapse.
Palestinian Islamic scholar Mohammad Afeef Shadid said in a video that was posted to the Al-Aqsa Call YouTube channel on May 15, 2022 that the Jews' "criminal ruler", what may be a reference to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, should understand that the "end of the Jews is near." He also claimed that this "rotten criminal" has said "Jerusalem is ours, Palestine is ours" and the "despicable lowlife" Arabs only responded by saying they abide by the charters of the League of Nations, the United Nations, and the UNSC. Shadid added: "We want to hear the response of heroes, not of lowlifes." For more information about Mohammad Afeef Shadid, see MEMRI TV Clips Nos. 9560 and 9466.
Yemeni university professor Dr. Abd Al-Wadud Muqasher said in an April 26, 2022 show that aired on Al-Masirah TV (Houthis – Yemen) that the Muslims' conflict with the Jews is religious and existential and not a conflict over borders. He elaborated that according to the Quran, the Jews are the "filthiest and most evil human beings" and were transformed into apes and pigs by Allah. In addition, Dr. Muqasher said that the Muslims must exterminate the Jews and that every Muslim must fight in order to liberate Palestine and Jerusalem from their filth. Dr. Muqasher also cited Adolf Hitler and Mein Kampf, and accused the Jews of spreading AIDS, cancer, and immorality throughout Egypt after the Camp David Accords.
British Islamic scholar Asrar Rashid said in a June 19, 2022 lecture at the South Birmingham Central Masjid that Adolf Hitler had done a "favor" for the Jews, who "capitalized" on European sympathy after World War II in order to come to Palestine. He said that the Jews had "held all the politicians in their pockets," and that the Communists in Russia were mostly Jews and had permitted Jewish emigration to Palestine in order to create a Jewish majority there. Later in the lecture, Rashid criticized the United Nations for only condemning Israel without taking action against it, and he said that it would not be surprising if the UN building is moved from New York to Jerusalem "in the near future." In addition, he said that there is a foundation inside the UN building that worships Satan, and that there is an "end goal" to pacify Islam by "rebranding" Jihad as radicalism and terrorism.
On April 29, 2022, in honor of International Quds Day, Channel 1 (Iran) aired a lecture given to foreign students in Iran by Iranian Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution member Hassan Rahimpour-Azghadi at an International Quds Day conference in 2019. In the lecture, Azghadi claimed that Israel abducts children from throughout the Arab world, harvests their organs to be used as "spare parts" by wealthy Jews and Westerns, and sexually abuses them in military bases. He also expressed doubts about the Holocaust and said that according to studies, Hitler was "born to Jews."
Muhammad Al-Lahham, a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, said in a May 15, 2022 show on Alghad TV (Egypt) that Fatah's conflict with Israel is about the very existence of Israel, and not about borders. He said that after being banished from 70 countries, the Jews had come to Palestine in order to "erase the truth" even though the Arab nation had never done them any harm. He said: "It is either us or them in this land." For more about Muhammad Al-Lahham, see MEMRI TV Clip No. 6840.
Iranian official Mehdi Taeb, the head of the regime-affiliated think-tank Ammar Strategic Advisory Base, said in an April 26, 2022 show on Channel 3 (Iran) that the Holocaust was a complete lie fabricated by the Jews, whom he described as "masters of inventing lies." Taeb also said that the Jews were not burned in the Holocaust and that it was impossible to prove that they were killed in gas chambers. For more about Mehdi Taeb, see MEMRI TV Clips nos. 8048, 8029, 7016, and 7986.
Senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) official Muhammad Shalah said in an April 24, 2022 show on Al-Quds Al-Youm TV (Islamic Jihad – Gaza) that Palestine is unquestionably Palestinian land, and that the Jews have no historical claim to it. He also said that Allah brought the Jews to Palestine for the Palestinians to "finish them off. In addition, he said that the PIJ is part of the Iran-backed "resistance axis" and that while Iran supplied the Palestinians with rockets and weapons, the Arabs only gave them school supplies. Muhammad Shalah is the brother of the former leader of the Islamic Jihad, Ramadan Abdullah Shalah who died in 2020.
On February 4, 2022, Channel 2 (Egypt) aired news report about Jewish assimilation that claimed that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion contains the outline of a Jewish scheme to establish a "global kingdom" and destroy non-Jewish nations. The report claimed that the Jews failed to integrate into European societies because of "their enmity towards humanity" and their "hostile Jewish personality" that was formed because they lived in ghettos. It also claimed that wars and conflicts erupted because of Jewish "schemes." It is noteworthy that Egyptian TV channels are known for airing antisemitic shows and reports. For example, in 2002 Egyptian TV aired an antisemitic Ramadhan TV series titled "A Horseman Without a Horse," in which The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are a central subject (see MEMRI TV Clips Nos. 3383 and 7279.)
Yemeni politician Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, a member of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, said in a March 14, 2022 interview on Mayadeen TV (Lebanon) that the Ukraine-Russia war is a result of the "evil-doing" of the Jews and that Ukraine is being led into war because it has a Jewish president. Al-Houthi also said that the Houthis are worried that the war has the purpose of weakening Russia and establishing a U.S.-dominated "unipolar" world order.
Palestinian political analyst Ahmad Abd Al-Rahman said in an April 7, 2022 show on Al-Quds Al-Youm TV (Gaza – Islamic Jihad) that the Holocaust and the image of Jews as poor and downtrodden were lies used by the Zionists to blackmail the world into bringing the Jews to the "so-called Promised Land." He praised Al-Quds Al-Youm TV and other "resistance media" outlets for exposing these lies.
Lebanese researcher 'Imad Rizq said in a March 1, 2022 show on Al-Manar TV (Hizbullah – Lebanon) that the Ukraine-Russia war is part of a conflict between Ukrainian Jews and Russian Jews. He described Odessa as a "stronghold" of Ukrainian Jews, and claimed that Ukraine's president and prime minister both hold Israeli citizenship. Claiming that Israel benefits from the war, Rizq said that there is a plan to transfer 200,000 poor Jewish farmers from Lviv to Israel. The host interjected that since there is a "demographic problem” in Israel, it will benefit from the immigration.
On March 6, 2022, El-Eman TV (Houthis-Yemen) aired a discussion about "Israel, Christian Zionism, and hostility towards Muslims," in which guests claimed that the Jews control the world's financial institutions and media. Yemeni political analyst Abd Al-Aziz Abu Taleb said that wealthy Jewish families like the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, and the Morgans control 80% of the world's resources, the World Bank, and the IMF. He also said that the Jews have historically dealt with usury, and that the post-WWII American-led world order was part of a Jewish plot to control the global movement of money by establishing the IMF and World Bank.
Iranian preacher Ali-Saleh Mousavi-Azam said in a Friday, February 4, 2022 sermon in the city of Yasuj, Iran that aired on Dena TV (Iran) that the Jews that live as dhimmis in Shiraz live in safety, yet still conspire and show animosity. He said that his intention is to "awaken" his audience's "sense of religious zeal" regarding the "atrocities" of the Jews and the Zionists. In addition, Mousavi-Azam said that he heard from his mentor that some Jews in Iran would use kerosene lamps instead of electricity so that they could send the money they saved to Israel.
Gaza Islamic scholar Wael Al-Zard said in a September 14, 2022 show on Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas-Gaza) that when the Jews pay Palestinian laborers in Israel, they are actually giving back to them money that was "rightfully" theirs. He elaborated that the “filthy” Jews are not doing the Palestinian laborers any favors, and that they have been sucking the blood of Palestinians’ resources for over 70 years. Al-Zard explained that the Palestinians would have been “many times richer” than the Jews, had the latter left the country.
Bassam Abu Sharif, who served as an advisor to Yasser Arafat, said in an April 10, 2022 interview on Al-Manar TV (Hizbullah – Lebanon) that Jews in Israel should join the Palestinians in their fight to topple the "blood-soaked" Zionist regime. He said that the Jews who immigrated to Israel from Arab countries suffer racism at the hands of Nazi-like Ashkenazi Jews and want to return to their Arab "homeland." He also said that Ashkenazi Jews are "Zelenskyy's people in Ukraine" and that they kill women and children. For more about Bassam Abu Sharif, see MEMRI TV Clips Nos. 1535, 2465, 7781, and 8696.
