ISIS supporters say the Palestinians should abandon their nationalist goals and wage a holy war against the Jews.
By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel
The radical Islamic social media machine run by ISIS is exploiting the violence in Israel to push a new message: The Palestinians should wage a jihad (holy war) and kill the Jews, an Israeli watchdog group reported this week.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) released a report Monday showing that pro-ISIS websites and social media channels want the Palestinians to start an all-out war against Israel.
MEMRI found that these sources are using the riots and rocket attacks to push their message of jihad, encouraging Palestinian Arabs to intensify their violence to achieve a Muslim victory over the Jews.
Beginning last week, several pro-ISIS Telegram channels posted calls for attacks on Israelis and Jews, under hashtags like #Hunt_them_O_Muwahid and #SlaughteringTheJews.
Other pro-ISIS channels posted links to old ISIS videos threatening Israel and Jews and urged their supporters to spread the videos and links under the trending hashtag #PalestineIsMyCause. Under the same hashtag, some channels posted a compilation of segments from official ISIS videos declaring that ISIS is at war with Israel and the Jews and urging Muslims to kill Jews.
Over the weekend, the pro-ISIS Al-Battar Foundation released a poster titled “O People of Palestine, This Is the Only Solution,” urging Arabs to reject nationalism and democracy and wage uncompromising jihad against the Jews, asserting that this is the only way to defeat Israel.
At the top of the poster is a compilation of images, including the Dome of the Rock; scenes of Israeli soldiers arresting Palestinians with bullseyes drawn on the figures of the soldiers; Palestinian protesters throwing rocks; Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh; and armed ISIS fighters standing guard and reciting from the Quran.
The text beneath the images states that the “filthy Jews” expel Muslims from their homes, and that they dare to do this only because “the Muslims of Palestine have relished the weakness represented by nationalism, patriotic zeal, and all forms of jahiliyah [ideologies reminiscent of pre-Islamic paganism].”
The poster adds that “nothing will deter the Jews but the method of the Prophet, namely jihad for the sake of Allah,” explaining that, if any method of nonviolent struggle were effective, Allah would not have commanded Muhammad to endanger his life through armed struggle against his enemies.
The Al-Battar poster stresses that the fight with the Jews is a clash of religions, not nationalities: “The Jews fight you for the sake of their religion and do not recognize nationalism, with which they bewitch your minds.”
By discrediting Palestinian nationalist movements like the PLO and Hamas, it warns the Palestinians not to rely on any group that “does not make waging jihad for the sake of Allah its evident, ongoing method.” Such groups, it says, pose no real threat to Israel, otherwise Israel would have fought them “and the war would not have subsided until one of the two sides was destroyed.”
According to Al-Battar, the PLO and Hamas only “traffic in your blood, possessions, and honor, and do not care what happens to you as long as their worldly interests are secure.” Al-Battar preaches that all armed groups are fighting either for Allah or for Satan, implying that the Palestinian groups fall into the second category.