Yesterday, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken declared, "Israelis were dehumanized in the most horrific way on October 7." (JPost)
Blinken's statement demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what happened on October 7 and calls into question whether he can effectively mediate a solution since he doesn't understand the problem. Palestinians did not dehumanize Israelis on October 7.The Palestinian Authority has been dehumanizing Jews and Israelis since the launching of the Oslo process. What happened on October 7 was the Palestinian population led by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah, implementing what they believe Jews and Israelis deserve after 28 years of their leaders dehumanizing Jews.
Just three months before the Oct. 7 atrocities, the most important Palestinian religious figure, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Mahmoud Abbas' advisor on religious affairs and the PA Supreme Shari'ah Judge, warned Palestinians about the danger of Jews whom he defined as people who "have left the path of humanity and followed Satanity. Satanity is an exit from humanity … Satan does not have to be in the form of a demon, hidden; he can also be in your form, but he is Satan. In the form of man, but he is Satan." [Official PA TV, July 7, 2023] Satan in Islam is the source of all evil in the world. Fighting and killing the Satan-Jew is not only an act of self-defense for Palestinians but is making the world a safer place.
In an earlier sermon, that same Abbas advisor said Jews on the Temple Mount are "grazing herds of humanoids, people or creatures that Allah created in the form of humans… those whom Allah has cursed and with whom He became angry and made of them apes and pigs." [Quran 5:60] He therefore urged Muslims to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque so that it does not remain "the prey of humanoids." [Official PA TV, Sept. 30, 2022]
Three times in the first half of 2023, official PA TV broadcast the opinions of Palestinian researcher Muhammad Al-Yahya, who explained: "Jews are by nature arrogant, do not accept the other… The Europeans hated them and wanted to get rid of them, so the European countries ... had the idea of establishing a Jewish state for the Jews … Their [Jewish] thinking is based on racism that caused them to be hated everywhere… In the Protocols of the Elders of Zion … there is a sentence that they are fulfilling that has caused them to be hated by all peoples … The pure Jew has the outlook that he is of the people chosen by God." [Official PA TV, Returning, Jan. 17, 2023 and Feb. 27, 2023, May 14, 2023]
On October 17, Palestinian political commentator Kamal Zakarneh explained on PA TV that Western nations support Israel because "Europe and America – succeeded in getting rid of the Jews, whom they themselves view as human waste, and they threw them out into Palestine... They don't want [a weak Israel which will cause] reverse migration now and their [Jews'] return to Europe again." [Official PA TV, Oct. 24, 2023]
The PA leadership has made it clear that dehumanizing Jews is not just a technical categorization but is something to be acted upon. The PA leaders present the murderers of the dehumanized Jews as Palestinian role models and heroes. After the murderers of Lucy Dee and her two daughters, Maia and Rina, were tracked down and killed by Israeli forces in May 2023, the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh posted the pictures of the murderers on his Facebook page and honored them: "Glory and eternity to our righteous Martyrs."When Palestinian murderers Maher and Karim Younes were released from prison last January after 40 years in jail, Mahmoud Abbas had a video made of him calling them on the phone to say: "You and Karim are prominent figures among this Palestinian people. We are proud of you … You are models of this nation, models of this people. You are icons of the Palestinian people…" [Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, Jan. 19, 2023]When the two top leaders of the Palestinian Authority are defining murderers of Jews as Palestinian "models and icons" deserving of "glory and eternity," dehumanization was already complete and being acted on.
October 7 results of years of Palestinian indoctrination
October 7 did not happen in a vacuum and was not the initial act of dehumanization. It has been years of successful PA indoctrination of the Palestinians that had already dehumanized Jews in Palestinian perception, which made Palestinians believe that October 7 was proper moral behavior. Palestinians trusted that they were merely acting in self-defense on behalf of all humanity against the dangers and suffering caused by "Satan-Jews," "humanoid-Jews," who are "human waste."
At a press conference to release Palestinian Media Watch's report on Palestinian schoolbooks in the US Senate in 2007, then-Senator Hillary Clinton said Palestinians were "profoundly poisoning the minds of these children." What happened 16 years later, on October 7, were the actions of the poisoned generation.
Sec. Blinken and the United States must understand that if they are seeking a solution, it cannot be achieved by merely treating the actions of October 7 as a one-time horrific isolated event and by replacing Hamas's rule of Gaza with the rule of the PA. It is the PA that poisoned a generation of Palestinians that created the support for Hamas.Before anyone should talk about giving additional jurisdiction to the poisonous PA, Israel needs to see a fundamental and extended detoxification of Palestinians. This process will take years and possibly decades. Only then can Israel consider extending jurisdiction to the PA, and only then will there be a population with which Israel can start a peace process.
Itamar Marcus is a researcher and the founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch.