JERUSALEM – The real meaning of “The Promised Land” is the place where Allah will fulfill his promise to exterminate all the Jews, a Palestinian woman said on Fatah TV.
The woman was responding to a question about President Donald Trump on a show called “Pulse of the Homeland,” broadcast on the Fatah-run Awdah TV and cited by Israeli monitoring group Palestinian Media Watch.
The show’s host asked: “Dear viewers, our question today is: Are you optimistic about the rise to power of American President Trump?”
The Palestinian woman replied: “We always put our hopes in Allah. This is the Promised Land. The Jews think it is promised to them, but what was promised was to gather them in order to exterminate them by a divine decree.”
Fatah leader Abbas Zaki expressed a similar belief on the Palestinian Authority’s official television network.
“I believe that Allah will gather them so we can kill them. I am informing the murderer of his death,” Zaki said.
PMW also cited a Hamas cleric teaching the same lesson and basing it on a source in the Koran:
“Here are the Zionists, who have gathered from all around. They occupy and usurp Jerusalem and its environs, and so the promise of Allah is realized: ‘We will bring you forth in [one] gathering’ (Quran, Sura 17:104) so that it will be easier to slaughter and kill you. O Zionists, you know this for certain.”
More than a decade ago, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah made similar comments. ”If Jews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide,” Nasrallah was quoted by Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star.
According to PMW, these Muslim leaders are attempting to reconcile seemingly conflicting Islamic traditions. The Koran’s statement that the “Children of Israel” will return to the Land of Israel seems to imply that the Koran not only recognizes Israel’s right to exist but also anticipates Israel’s rebirth:
“And We said after Pharaoh to the Children of Israel, ‘Dwell in the land, and when there comes the promise of the Hereafter, We will bring you forth in [one] gathering.'” (Sura 17:104)
However, PMW notes that the Sura seems to contradict the Hadith – Islamic traditions attributed to Muhammad – interpreted by some Palestinian religious leaders as meaning that all Jews are destined to be exterminated by Muslims.
The answer for these Islamic leaders is that the Jews will gather together in the land for the sole purpose of facilitating this extermination.