The neutrality of this article is disputed. Compare to Israelis and anti-Palestinian racism

Anti-Semitism in its simplest terms is "a hatred of Jews and Judaism." The uses of the term anti-Semitism is often confused with anti-Zionism, but this is considered by many to be a separate topic. While there are legitimate criticisms of the State of Israel, there is also a genuine form of ethnic hatred of Jews; this article is specifically about anti-Semitic comments and propaganda, espoused by influential Arab persons to incite or promote further hatred toward Jews and Israel.

In recent years, a small but growing number of Arabs have worked to fight racism towards Jews, including a few high-profile leaders in the Middle East.

Arab Anti-Semitism in the 20th and 21st century

Arab newspapers

Some Arab newspapers (notably Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, Palestinian Authority's official newspaper) write that "the Jews" control all the world's governments, and that "the Jews" plan genocide on all the Arabs in the West Bank. Others write less sensational stories, and states that Jews have too much of an influence in the US government. Sometimes the leaders of other nations are said to be controlled by Jews. Some Arab newspapers run stories saying that all Jews are capitalists and control the world's banks; ironically, these same papers also run articles saying that all Jews are communists and plan a Marxist

Arab newspapers carry story saying that the State of Israel plans to expand settlements in the West Bank, and other articles critical of Israel, but criticism of Israeli policy as such is not considered anti-Semitic by any mainstream Jewish group.

Articles in many official Arab government newspapers (notably those of the Palestinian Authority, Libya and Saudi Arabia) state that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an infamous anti-Semitic forgery, reflects actual facts, and thus points to an "international Jewish conspiracy" to take over the world. They also hold that this conspirary will deny the Palestinians a state.

Many Arab newspapers, both those funded by governments as well as independents, either deny that the Holocaust ever took place, or state that it was massively exaggerated. Examples include the following:

"Netanyahu's Plan completely matches the foundations of the greater Zionist plan which is organized according to specific stages that were determined when the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was composed and when Herzl along with Weizmann traveled around the world in order to determine the appropriate location for the implementation of this conspiracy," (official Palestinian Authority newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, November 30, 1997)

"The Jews seek to conquer the world...We must expose the Zionist-Colonialist plot and its goals, which destroy not only our people but the entire world" (PA Minister of Agriculture, Abdel Jawad Saleh, quoted in Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, November 6, 1997)
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A summary of Arab Anti-Semitism is available in the following review.

Arab Anti-Semitism in 1998/99

Table of contents
1 Arab response to September 11 terrorist attack
2 The Palestinian Authority's view of Jewish people
3 Quotes
4 Sources
5 Jewish-Arab dialogue

Arab response to September 11 terrorist attack

Across the Arab world, Arab government-sponsored newspapers (notably those of the Palestinian Authority, Libya and Saudi Arabia) were immediately filled with articles "proving" that the attack was actually carried out by "the Jews", "the Zionists", "the Israelis" and even "the Americans". For a great many within the Arab world, this terrorist act was seen as a conspiracy to make the world hate all Arabs, and therefore people perceived to be enemies of the Arabs must really be to blame.

Educated Arabs and Muslims do not accept such views, and like Americans, they correctly saw these claims to be yet another conspiracy theory. The Jewish community was and is concerned about this new form of Anti-Semitism. Other Arab Muslim religious leaders held that these attacks were indeed carried out by Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda, and spoke out in approval. A third Arab response was recognition that these events were carried out by Al Qaeda, and were reprehensible acts of terrorism.

The Palestinian Authority's view of Jewish people

The Palestinian Authority's official television channel has shows which teach 6 and 7 year old kids to murder Jewish people. Episodes of a program called “The Children's Club,” broadcast in early 1998, showed a group of young Arab children, one of whom stood up, raised her fist, and shouted: “When I wander into Jerusalem, I will turn into a suicide warrior in battle dress! In battle dress!” She was cheered and applauded by the other children in the group, and their adult leader declared, “Bravo! Bravo!” On another segment, a young girl sang: “Each and every part of your soil I have drenched with all my blood. And we shall march as warriors of Jihad. Oh, my exalted martyr, you are my example. Oh, my sister, sing constantly about my life as a suicide warrior, how we remain steadfast. On, my country, you are my soul.” (Videotape of “The Children's Club”, Peace for Generations, Jerusalem, 1998)

An investigation by the Philadelphia Inquirer (September 7, 1997) found children's programs on PA television in which an 8 year-old girl was shown singing: “I am a daughter of Palestine. Koran in my right hand, in my left — a knife,” and another in which a young girl recites a poem she said she wrote for Yassir Arafat: “I am finished practicing on the submachine gun of return... We swear to take vengeful blood from our enemies for our killed and wounded. We will board a bustling boat which will take us to Jaffa.” On the show, the girl then approached Arafat, who kissed her on both cheeks. The Inquirer continued:

"In a show about the opening of Palestinian schools, girls in frilly white dresses were shown dancing with Kalashnikov rifles that they twirled like batons. In another broadcast, a schoolboy, asked what he got out of summer camp, answered: 'I am defending the homeland and undergo training like army drills.' "

"There is a children's quiz show about great figures in Palestinian history — many of whom are considered heroes by Palestinians, but terrorists by Israelis. One show featured Izz al-Din al-Qassam, a [[sheik] who was killed by the British in 1935. The military wing of Hamas, which has carried out many terrorist bombings in Israel, was named for Qassam. The heroine of another episode was Dalal al-Maghribi, a woman who commanded a bus hijacking near Haifa in 1978. Thirty-four Israelis and nine Palestinian commandos, Magribi among them, were killed. The quiz-show emcee referred to Magribi as "our sacred martyr."

Senior PA officials also regularly engage in hostile propaganda against Israel, and Arafat has taken no action against them. For example, the Deputy Minister of the PA Ministry of Supplies has accused Israel of giving Palestinian Arabs “food containing material that causes cancer and hormones that harm male virility and other spoiled food products in order to poison and harm the Palestinian population.” (Yediot Ahronot, June 25, 1997)

The PLO's representative to the United Nations in Geneva has accused Israel of injecting “300 Palestinian children with the HIV virus.” (Jerusalem Post, March 17, 1997)

The director of the Inspection Department of the PA Ministry of Supplies has claimed that Israeli chewing gums sold in PLO-controlled areas “contain a sexually-stimulating adrenaline substance.” (Jerusalem Post, March 27, 1997)

Senior PA officials and the PA-controlled media have also repeatedly made statements denigrating Jewish religious beliefs and Jewish history, such as denying that modern Jews have any connection to the Jews in the Bible; denying that Jews have any historical connection to Jerusalem; denying that the Temple Mount and Western Wall have any religious significance in Judaism; and claiming that biblical patriarchs such as Abraham were not Jews. Senior PA officials and the PA-controlled media have also repeatedly made statements distorting or denying the Holocaust.

In some cases, they have claimed that Jews invented the “myth” of Nazi genocide in order to gain world sympathy and reparations money. In other instances, they have acknowledged that some Jews were murdered by the Nazis, but charged that Jews vastly exaggerated the death toll for political purposes. Thus Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), Arafat's number-two man and the architect of the Oslo Accords, is the author of a book claiming that the Nazis may have really killed less than one million Jews. (Jerusalem Post, January 26, 1995) Numerous senior PA officials have also compared Israel to the Nazis, in some cases declaring that Israel's treatment of Arabs is even worse than the Nazis' treatment of Jews.

Quotes

Sources

Egyptian government newspaper reprints Nazi forgeries
Jews blamed for the September 11th World Trade Center attacks
Egyptian government science journal claims that the Jews deliberately spread AIDS
Saudi government newspaper claims that Jews are taking over the world
Zionism is accused of being the same as Nazism
Leader of Libya claims that the Jews deliberately spread AIDS

Jewish-Arab dialogue

There are a number of projects working for peace among Israelis and Arabs, and projects which include Jewish-Islamic theological dialogue. One of their goals is to reduce anti-Semitism.

See also: Anti-Semitism, Judaism, Conspiracy theory, Islam and anti-Semitism