When the victim of the Nazis is accused of being worse than Nazis
Top PA official Rajoub: The Jew is not “a victim” but “a criminal, a terrorist, and a distorted form of the fascism and Nazism of the last century”
PA daily: Israel’s “barbaric and insane war of annihilation” [in Gaza] “has exceeded all the German Nazi and Italian Fascist crimes”
PA official: Israeli PM Netanyahu is like Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister
PA TV broadcasts libel twice: “The Israelis are doing to the Palestinians what the Nazis did to them” - Egyptian international relations expert
Libel: Conditions in Israeli prisons “are unprecedented anywhere but [in] the Nazi camps of the 1940s” – PA official
While Israel today commemorates the 6 million victims of the Nazis in the Holocaust, it is at the same time constantly confronted with libels by PA leaders and officials claiming Israel is “acting like the Nazis” and worse. These lies have been intensified since Hamas launched the current war against Israel with its attack and massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The official PA daily stated that Israel’s defense war against Hamas “has exceeded all the German Nazi and Italian Fascist crimes of annihilation”:
“The Zionist-American war (i.e., the 2023 Gaza war; see note below) is targeting the annihilation of the Palestinian people or exiling it from the land of Ribat (i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic)… and eliminating its national cause in order to spread darkness, wars, terror, and religious conflicts… Will the [Arab] brothers, the free world, and the supporters of peace stop the barbaric and insane war of annihilation that has exceeded all the German Nazi and Italian Fascist crimes of annihilation known to history?”
[Column by regular columnist Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 12, 2024]
Two months into the war, top PA official Jibril Rajoub stated that Jews are not “victims” but “criminal[s], terrorist[s], and a distorted form of the fascism and Nazism of the last century” and that the West has been “deceived” about this. He added that the war in Gaza is part of “the defense that the Palestinian people has waged and is waging for 75 years” – in other words, since Israel’s establishment:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “The Americans, Europeans, and others were deceived to think that the Jew is a victim. The truth is that he is a criminal, a terrorist, and a distorted form of the fascism and Nazism of the last century.”
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, Dec. 4, 2023]
Talking about the PA’s proposed terrorists-for-hostages exchange, which the Palestinians envision as part of the negotiations with Israel to free the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas, Jibril Rajoub has also claimed that living conditions in Israeli prisons “are unprecedented anywhere but [in] the Nazi camps of the 1940s”:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “This [prisoner exchange] will be an opportunity, and the international community must adopt this position – closing the issue of imprisonment; closing the issue of abductions (i.e., arrest of terrorists), closing the issue of the massacre being committed in Israeli prisons through living conditions that are unprecedented anywhere but the Nazi camps of the 1940s and its barbaric and fascist treatment, etc.”
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page,
April 26, 2024]
Another example of Israel being called “Nazi” is this statement by an Egyptian academic accusing Israel of “wildly doing today to the Palestinians what the Nazis did to them” during its current defense war against Hamas after they launched a war on Israel. Obviously, the PA has no objections to the view expressed as official PA TV chose to broadcast this interview twice:
International relations expert at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Egypt Bashir Abd Al-Fattah: “The Israelis are killing the Palestinians and annihilating the Palestinians. They are committing Nazi acts. They are wildly doing today to the Palestinians what the Nazis did to them previously – the same crimes and the same method.”
[Official PA TV, From Cairo, March 4 and 9, 2024]
Fatah Revolutionary Council member Tayseer Nasrallah echoed this, claiming Israel’s defense efforts in Gaza are “consistent with the mentality of crime, fascism, and Nazism”:
“In World War I and World War II, no European city or state absorbed the scope [of damage] that the Gaza Strip has absorbed in six months (sic., refers to the 2023 Gaza war; see note below). Therefore, this occupation (i.e., Israel) has actually used all its criminal tools and everything that is consistent with the mentality of crime, fascism, and Nazism against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”
[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page,
April 9, 2024]
Earlier this year, a PA official compared Israeli PM Netanyahu to Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister:
Palestinian National Council member and Fatah Austria Branch Secretary Mundhir Mar’i: “I compare Netanyahu to Goebbels, who was the Nazi propaganda minister who told Hitler: ‘Lie, lie, and lie, and the lie will become truth and people will say that it’s true.’ Now we are going in the same direction and on the same path. Goebbels was the propaganda minister, and now he has parallels in the form of Benjamin Netanyahu, [Israeli Minister of Finance] Smotrich, and [Israeli Minister of National Security] Ben Gvir.”
[Falestinona (Fatah’s Information and Culture Commission in Lebanon), YouTube channel, Feb. 10, 2024]
Jibril Rajoub has likewise accused the Israeli government of being “fascist” and led by “neo-Nazis”:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “The Israeli war is against the Palestinian people, not against Hamas. For us, ‘Hamas’ is a political rival, and our struggle with it is a democratic, moral, and value-based struggle… Currently the Israelis or this fascist [Israeli] government led by these neo-Nazis, as I said, want to eliminate the idea of the [Palestinian] state.”
[Al-Majalla, Saudi state-affiliated London-based news website, March 23, 2024]
The Nazi libel against Israel was not born out of the current war in the Gaza Strip, which was launched by terror organization Hamas with its attack and massacre of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023. For decades, Palestinian Media Watch has documented similar accusations by the PA.
In July 2023, a Fatah official labeled an Israeli counter-terror operation “Nazi,” saying Israel “insists on teaching Hitler what Nazism is”:
Other examples include:
- PA: Israel is “reenacting the Nazi Holocaust,” Zionism is “Nazism,” Israelis are the “new Nazis” (2022)
- PA regularly equates Israel and Israeli leaders to Nazism and Nazi leaders (2021)
- Israeli PM Netanyahu is a Nazi with a swastika tattoo - in Fatah cartoon (2016)
- Netanyahu has Nazi genes and imitates Hitler's racism (2014)
Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul is a regular columnist for the official PA daily and is a former advisor to former PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on national affairs. He is also a former PLO Central Council member.
Jibril Rajoub also serves as Head of the PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Chairman of the Palestinian Football Association, Chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee, and Chairman of the Palestinian Scout Association (PSA).
Hamas war on Israel October 2023 - At least 1,200 Israelis, including over 1,000 civilians, were murdered and over 4,800 wounded, in addition to approximately 244 who were abducted into the Gaza Strip (including 110 later released or liberated and at least 26 later killed), in a Hamas terror war that began when approximately 3,000 Hamas terrorists broke through Israel's security fence at the Gaza Strip border and launched a surprise attack, taking control of several Israeli towns and attacking a music festival on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, which fell on the Sabbath, Oct. 7, 2023. During the massacre, the terrorists tortured, raped, shot, beheaded, and burned their victims alive, murdering entire families and leaving at least 21 children without parents. Hamas terrorists also fired at least 5,000 rockets at Israeli population centers. In response, Israel launched the Swords of Iron War to counter the Hamas terror threat. Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon joined Hamas' terror war starting from the following day, attacking Israel from the north. Occasional rocket launches and shootings continued from Lebanon throughout the war. A ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal began on Nov. 24, 2023, in which Israel agreed to release 150 terrorist prisoners, pause drone surveillance in the Gaza Strip, and allow movement between the northern and southern Gaza Strip, in return for 50 Israeli female and child hostages held by Hamas. The deal was subsequently extended with additional releases, until Hamas violated the agreement and resumed attacking on Dec. 1, 2023.