Newspaper publishes articles saying that terrorists’ “hands are blessed” and urging the “expulsion of all Zionists from Palestine.”
By World Israel News Staff
Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement blasting a prominent Qatari news outlet for publishing commentary that glorified deadly terror attacks against Israelis and encouraged further violence.
In May, watchdog group Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) translated an article penned by Palestinian author Samir Barghouti that was published in Qatar’s Al Watan newspaper.
The Al Watan outlet is owned by Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, a member of the royal family in Qatar.
The article called for terrorists to attack Israel in widespread attacks, throughout the entire geographic area of the Jewish State.
“Hit [them] in the depth of the Jerusalem settlements, in Tel Aviv and in all parts of the land they stole and whose people they expelled, from Ras Al-Naqoura [Rosh HaNikra in northern Israel] to Rafah [in the southern Negev desert],” wrote Barghouti.
“Hit [them], and may your hands be blessed. Even if you do not hurt a single one of them, it is enough to terrify them and sow fear among them.”
Barghouti continued by writing that “had there been someone to hit [them] inside the 1948 territories, [Israel] would not have continued to exist on our soil to this very day. Had it not been for the Camp David Accords and the Oslo Accords, not a single Zionist would have remained in Palestine.”
The Foreign Ministry condemned the article in a media statement to the Jerusalem Post, saying that “such inflammatory rhetoric and glorification of violence are deeply disturbing and contribute to the perpetuation of the hatred and hostility in the region.”
A spokesman from the ministry added that “Israel remains committed to the unconditional fight against terror and calls to end any manifestation of this kind of unproductive incitement.”
Ghanem Nuseibeh, an expert on Qatari affairs and the head of the UK-based group Muslims Against Antisemitism, told the Post that the article had likely received approval from the highest echelons of the Qatari government.
“Qatar media is heavily censored and such extremist incitement would not be published without government approval,” he said.
Nuseibeh also noted that in recent years, Qatar has been “the most virulent spreader of antisemitism in Arabic-speaking communities, and there are no signs this has stopped.”
Qatar is a major funder of the Hamas terror group in Gaza and does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.