Chanting "Jews, remember Khaybar" in Italy
Chanting "Jews, remember Khaybar" in Italy

In recent weeks, Malmö made the headlines in many newspapers all over the world for the anti-Semitic slogans seen and shouted at demonstrations, particularly one of them. Then it was the turn of Berlin, where, under the Brandenburg Gate, the protesters used the same slogan. But in recent days, even in Milan, the same slogans were heard in one of the two demonstrations organized against the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In Milan I saw a girl carrying the sign "The Nazis are still around and now they call themselves Zionists", heard hymns dedicated to the "victory of the Intifada", this in addition to banners against Zionism and songs like "A stone for freedom", in support of Palestinian violence.

In Milan there were imams at the head of the event organized by the Palestinian Association in Italy, but there were non-Muslim Italians there as well as Muslims, all told about 1000 people.

In Milan's Place Cavour, on December 9th, the same terrible anti-Semitic slogan of Malmö resounded: "Khaybar, khaybar ya yahud, jaish Muhammad saya'ud". Translated, it reads: "Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return". A thunderous chorus repeated eight times by the protestors.

Khaybar is the name of the oasis inhabited by Jews that Muhammad conquered in 628. The place has a legendary and mythical meaning in the Islamist perspective of a final and violent submission of the Jews. Muhammad, at the head of an army of sixteen hundred men, assaulted, submitted, enslaved and killed the peaceful Jews settled in the oasis of Khaybar, north of Medina.

The late Robert S. Wistrich, the greatest scholar of anti-Semitism in the world, wrote in his masterpiece "A lethal obsession" that there are videos of Hamas in which contemporary "martyrs" proclaim the "call of jihad, the call of Allah Akbar, the time of Khaybar has come!". There are songs that enthusiastically evoke the massacre of the Jews ("the sons of Khaybar") as a kind of sacrificial act.

  • The battle of Khaybar against the Jews is evoked at Hezbollah demonstrations.
  • "Khaybar 1" is the name of one of Hezbollah's rockets aimed at Israel.
  • There is a TV series in Syria against Jews called "Khaybar".
  • A religious Egyptian Salafist, Hazem Shuman, on TV said that "the seventh century Khaybar's Jews are the replica of the State of Israel".
  • Thousands of Tunisian Salafists have chanted the slogan "Khaybar" waving the black flag of the Caliphate.
  • Imams of Gaza wielded a knife in a mosque and invited the faithful to follow "the example of Khaybar".    

That slogan is clear: the Islamist army is about to hit the Jews again. This is why today throughout Europe - where the "Khaybar" resounds everywhere - synagogues, schools and Jewish centers are protected by army units.

I call on the Italian authorities to ban the anti-Semitic slogans used by terrorist organizations. It is pure incitement to anti-Jewish hate and slaughter.