User:Vegan416/sandbox/Animal stereotypes of Jews in Palestinian discourse - draft

= Animal stereotypes of Jews in Palestinian discourse = Animal stereotypes of Jews in Palestinian discourse refers to the language and imagery that are encountered in Palestinian narratives that zoomorphically classify Jews as members of different kinds of sub-human species, as opposed to terms that only imply racial inferiority within the human species. This kind of dehumanization is commonplace among both sides of the Palestinians-Palestinian conflict.

Background
Some amount of antisemitism (prejudice against and hatred of Jews), including dehumanization of Jews, existed in the Muslim and Arab since the middle ages. There are different opinions about what was the magnitude of this antisemitism, but it is agreed that it was usually less severe than in the Christian world. However it has increased greatly (including in Palestine) since the beginning of the 20th century, for several reasons: the dissolution and breakdown of the Ottoman Empire and traditional Islamic society; European influence, brought about by Western imperialism and Arab Christians; Nazi propaganda and relations between Nazi Germany and the Arab world;  resentment over Jewish nationalism; the rise of Arab nationalism; the widespread proliferation of anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist conspiracy theories, especially those coming from the communist block during the cold war; and the rise of radical Islamism and Jihadism.

The dehumanization of Jews in general Muslim and Arab discourse, and specifically in Palestinian discourse, takes place (among other ways) by portraying them as many different types of animals that are considered lowly, repugnant, impure and sometimes also damaging or dangerous, such as pigs, monkeys, rats, snakes, vampires, octopuses, crocodiles and more, as is detailed below. These dehumanizing language and imagery are used by parts of many levels of Palestinian society: political and religious leaders, the media, military organizations, people on the streets and even children, as is detailed below.

Some scholars and activists, like Robert Bernstein, a co-founder of Human Rights Watch, and the psychologist Neil Kressel from William Paterson University, expressed the opinion that the United Nations and human rights groups tend to largely ignore dehumanization of Jews when it comes from the Palestinians or other Arab and Muslim groups.

Monkeys and Pigs
Three Quranic verses are the source of conventional Muslim epithets for Jews (as apes) and Christians (as pigs). However in the Quran these verses are somewhat enigmatic, and it seems that originally they were aimed only at those Jews that are sinners to their own religion, in particular Jews who desecrate the Shabbat. Despite that nowadays many Muslims use both "pigs" and "apes" to insult and describe traits of all Jews, and in particular for Zionist and Israeli Jews, as exemplified in the words of several important Muslim religious authorities. For example, Mohamed Sayyid Tantawi, in 2002 in a sermon he gave in Egypt as Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar, said that the Jews are "the enemies of Allah, descendants of apes and pigs". And in the same year Abdul-Rahman Al-Sudais, the Chief Imam of the Grand Mosque, Masjid al-Haram in Makkah, said in a sermon broadcast on Saudi TV that the Jews are "the rats of the world, [..] prophet killers, the offspring of pigs and monkeys".

Concentrating on the Palestinian discourse, on the 1990s the phrase "sons of monkeys and pigs" (in romanized Arabic: ibna al-qird wa al-khanazir) appears as an epithet for Jews in messages published by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah organizations. They also used this term to describe the Jews killed in their attacks, for example when Hamas took responsibility for the 1995 Beit Lid suicide bombing it said that it had killed "20 pigs" and injured "60 monkeys". Also, in some of the recorded messages that Palestinian suicide attackers made before their final action, they called their future victims "monkeys and pigs".

In 1996 the Hamas monthly Falastin Al-Muslima published an article claiming that the transformation of ancient Jews to "apes, pigs, mice and lizards " that is mentioned in Islamic tradition "was actual" and that it "left its mark in the souls of the Jews who came after them". It further claimed that because the Jews felt shame at being descendants of apes they decided to convince all humans that they all developed over time from an ape to human form, and that's why the Theory of Evolution was invented by "the Jewish ape Darwin".

The phrase is used also by Palestinian leaders and officials. In 2001 Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, then the Hamas spokesman and later head of Hamas in Gaza, said: "The [Hamas] political leadership has freed the hand of the brigades to do whatever they want against the brothers of monkeys and pigs". In the same year, Ibrahim Madhi, a Palestinian Authority (PA) official and Imam in Gaza also called the Jews "apes and pigs" in a sermon on PA TV in Gaza. In 2008, the chairman of the Palestinian Scholars League, and a Hamas legislator in Gaza, Marwan Abu Ras, said “We are besieged [...] by the brothers of apes and pigs.”

This description of the Jews is also repeated by officials and clerics of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank. For example: in a sermon in 2002 by Mohammad Mustafa Najem who in 2024 became the PA's minister of religious affairs ; in 2018, by Sheikh Osama Al-Tibi in a sermon in PA TV ; and in 2022, by Mahmoud al-Habbash, the religious affairs advisor to the PA president Mahmoud Abbas, in a sermon on PA TV.

This expression is also used by children and in educational programs aimed at children For example, in 2001 an 11 year children in a Hamas school in Gaza said in front of his class: "I will make my body a bomb that will blast the flesh of Zionists, the sons of pigs and monkeys". In 2013 a young girl recited on Palestinian Authority (PA) TV, a poem with the lines "Oh Sons of Zion, oh most evil among creations, Oh barbaric monkeys, wretched pigs". Same happened in 2014 on Hamas Al-Aqsa TV this time with a boy reciting the poem.

Dogs
In Islamic culture the dog is usually regarded as an impure and lowly animal. Therefore portrayal of humans as dogs in this culture are intended to be particularly offensive.

The slogan "Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs"
The slogan "Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs" (In Arabic it is a rhyme: فلسطين بلادنا واليهود كلابنا, romanized: Falastin bladna, w-el-Yahud klabna) first appeared in Palestine in 1918-1919. This chant was used in Arab demonstrations in Jerusalem on March 1920 and 1923. The slogan was also chanted on April 1920 by the crowds in a demonstration that was led by Amin al-Husayni (who later became the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem) and by the editor of the newspaper Suriya al-Janubia (Southern Syria), Aref al-Aref. This demonstration developed into the Nebi Musa riots.

Chants of this slogan became a regular feature of the Muslim Nebi Musa festival in Jerusalem during the British Mandate.

In the early 1930s in a meeting between Haj Amin al-Husayni and some Bedouin tribe leaders in which he tried to convince them not to sell land to the Jews they answered him: "Haj Amin don't be worried! [...] The land is our land and the Jews are our dogs".

The slogan spread from Palestine to neighboring countries. In Syria and Lebanon in 1948 some crowds also chanted the slogan "Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs" at the Jews living there, sometimes as a precursor to riots.

In 1987 the slogan was used in protests and riots perpetrated by Israeli Arab citizens in Jaffa, Haifa and Nazareth, in solidarity with the First Intifada. Palestinian prisoners in Ketziot prison in 1991 used to chant this slogan from time to time, including when Iraq fired missiles on Israel during the First Gulf War. In 2020 a Palestinian was questioned by Israeli Police after he livestreamed himself shouting this slogan at a group of ultra-orthodox Jews in the Old-City of Jerusalem.

In the 21st century the slogan spread to North America. In 2006 there the slogan was chanted (in Arabic) in Palestinian demonstrations in San-Francisco organized by Al-Awda organization. In 2009 the chant was used in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Montreal. In 2020 the chant (in Arabic) was captured on video in a Palestinian demonstration in Ontario. The organizers issued an apology later.

Palestinian children also use this chant. For example, an incident was reported in 1936 where children chanted this slogan at a Jewish passenger in Jaffa, while the adults accompanying them kept silent. The slogan had become part of a Palestinian children song. There are some variants of this nursery rhyme. One version is: "Palestine is our country, The Jews our dogs, Put one branch on top of another, May Allah break the Jews". Another version: "Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs. They came to our country like beggars". Another one: "The Arabs are our friends, the Jews are our dogs".

Other uses of "dogs"
Jews are called dogs also without direct connection to the above slogan. For example, In 1992 Yassar Arafat, who was then the PLO leader, was recorded in a conversation with PLO representative in Paris, saying: "The Jews at work. Damn their fathers. The dogs".

In 2015 a Palestinian-Israeli Imam called Netanyahu a "Jewish dog" during a sermon. One of the participants in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel was recorded saying about the victims of the attack "Jewish dogs".

Rats and Mice
In some Muslim traditions when the ancient Jews were turned into pigs and apes some of them were also turned into rats and mice (and also lizards and termites). Rats and mice are also an antisemitic trope that was used by the Nazis.

They are also used in Palestinian propaganda against Zionism and Israel. For example: In 2014, during the kidnapping of 3 Israeli teenagers by Hamas, the Fatah posted on its facebook page a caricature showing three rats labeled with white Stars of David on them, caught on a fishing line, with the title "masterstroke". Later that year, during a time of tensions around the Temple Mount, Fatah's Information and Culture Commission's website published a caricature of al-Aqsa mosque on the top of a mountain being eaten away by a pack of rats marked with Star of David.

Octopuses
Octopuses are a known antisemitic trope. It is also used in Palestinian propaganda against Zionism and Israel. For example, in 1936 the most widely circulated Arabic language newspaper in British Mandate Palestine, Filastin, published a caricature showing an octopus catching in its arms a young woman, captioned "Palestine entangled by World Jewry". In 2010, after the Gaza flotilla raid the Jordanian-Palestinian cartoonist Emad Hajjaj published a cartoon of an octopus, with a Star of David, grabbing a little boat in the shape of a peace dove.

Snakes
Snakes are a known antisemitic trope. It is also used in Palestinian propaganda against Israel.

For example: In 2001, Emad Hajjaj, published a caricature in the Jordanian newspaper Ad Dustour in which Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon (the contenders for prime-ministry in the Israeli 2001 elections) were portrayed as the two heads of a serpent marked by Stars of David. In 2014 a cartoon published in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, an official newspaper of the Palestinian Authority, depicted a snake-like skullcap-wearing Israeli (possibly Avigdor Lieberman) having his head cut off by two fingers titled "Palestinian unity" that represent the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas. Later the same year, a caricature published in The Capital City, a bi-weekly paper distributed with Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, portrayed the Israeli right wing activist Yehuda Glick (who later became Knesset member) is depicted as a snake.

In the years 2004-2010 Palestinian Authority TV repeatedly broadcasted a music video that depicted Israel as “a snake coiled around the land”.

Crocodiles
Israel and Zionism are sometimes depicted in Palestinian sources as crocodiles. For example, in 1936 the most widely circulated Arabic language newspaper in British Mandate Palestine, Filastin, published a caricature showing the "Zionist crocodile" telling the Arabs "Don't be afraid! I'll swallow you peacefully". In the 21st century several caricatures depicting Israel as a crocodile marked by Star of David appeared in Palestinian papers such as Al- Quds Al-Arabi , Felesteen, Al-Quds.

Germs
In 1910 local Arab notables in Nablus asked the Ottoman government not to be annexed to the Jerusalem administrative district "so as not to be infected with the Zionist germ".

In 1985 George Habash, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said "We will not be able to secure the future of our generations if the Zionist germ continues to exist on Arab soil".

In the beginning of the 21st century, a Palestinian textbook for children said that the Arabs should "exterminate the Zionist germ".

Viruses
In 2005 Imam Ibrahim Mudayris said in a sermon broadcasted in Palestinian Authority TV: "With the establishment of the state of Israel, the entire Islamic nation was lost, because Israel is a cancer spreading through the body of the Islamic nation, and because the Jews are a virus resembling AIDS, from which the entire world suffers".

Cancer
In 2006 Hamas Political Bureau chief Khaled Mashal called Israel a "cancer that must be pulled out by its roots." In 2007 Palestinian Legislative Council Acting Speaker Ahmed Bahar said in a sermon on Palestinian Autority TV: "Our people was afflicted by the cancerous lump, that is the Jews, in the heart of the Arab nation". In 2018 Fathi Hamad, a member of Hamas Political Bureau and former Interior Minister of Gaza Strip, called for was the establishment of an Islamic caliphate “once the nation has been healed of its cancer — the Jews".