Palestinian self-criticism: Rebuke of Muslim leaders who say Jews are descendants of apes and pigs, on private Palestinian news site
Headline: "The Jews are not the descendants of apes and pigs"
Excerpt of op-ed by Anwar Al-Waridi
"The problem with the collective Arab mentality
The Jews are not descendants of apes or pigs, but rather human beings, descendants of Adam and Eve. It is an embarrassment that some gullible and crazy sheikhs are always screaming that ‘The Jews are the descendants of apes and pigs.’
As for those who bring as proof the honorable verse [of the Quran]: ’We said to them, ”Be apes, despised"’ [Quran, Sura 2:65, Sahih International], or [Allah's] words: '…and made of them apes and pigs and slaves of Taghut’ [Quran, Sura 5:60, Sahih International]; indeed despite the disagreement between commentators regarding the meaning, the popular view is that they turned into apes in essence, and not in form. In other words, their characteristics turned into the characteristics of apes, but they did not turn into real apes. Furthermore, this change occurred to [one] group of them, and only in [one] specific instance, and not to all of the Jews. If we suppose that all of them did indeed turn into apes, can an ape give birth to a human being? Then how could it be that the Jews of our days are the descendants of those who turned into apes, according to the opinion of ignorant sheikhs? Apes give birth to apes and human beings give birth to human beings. The Jews of today are not descendants of apes or pigs, as we stupidly and naively shout, as if we thus defeat them.
If they are indeed the descendants of apes and pigs, and they are succeeding in defeating us for nearly 100 years, does the fact that apes and pigs are defeating us add honor to us?
In days of yore, the Arab would praise his enemy as he praised himself. He would describe him as brave, heroic, and strong, and add: 'Despite his strength, I defeated him…'
For more than 100 years we are cursing the Jews and describing them as cowardly, weak, and stupid, apes and pigs, while they are making fun of us and laughing, as if they are saying: 'You can curse and insult. We do not care about that foolishness as long as we are stronger, ruling, victorious, and occupying you and your land.'"