Matzah
MatzahFlash 90

Once again, Hamas has used the centuries old “matzah blood libel”, that Jews use the blood of non-Jews to make matzah for Passover.

This time, the blood libel was used by top Hamas representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, who claimed that Israelis kill children and linked this to the blood libel. The remarks were made in an interview on the Lebanese Al-Quds TV channel on July 28. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) translated the interview.

“The Israelis concentrate on killing children. I believe that this is engraved in the historical Zionist and Jewish mentality, which has become addicted to the killing of women and children,” claimed Hamdan.

“We all remember how the Jews used to slaughter Christians, in order to mix their blood in their holy matzos. This is not a figment of imagination or something taken from a film. It is a fact, acknowledged by their own books and by historical evidence. It happened everywhere, here and there,” he added.

The blood libel originated in 1144 with the fabricated story of William of Norwich, England and is continuously used by Arabs. Earlier this month, the editor of Hamas's paper Al-Risalah, Wisam Afifa, associated the death of Palestinian Arab teen Mohammed Abu-Khder with the blood libel.

Another instance of an Arab media outlet perpetuating the blood libel was uncovered by MEMRI last year.

In that incident, the founder of the Egyptian Justice and Progress Party said in a televised interview, “It is well known that during the Passover, [the Jews] make matzos called the ‘Blood of Zion’. They take a Christian child, slit his throat and slaughter him. Then they take his blood and make their [matzos]. This is a very important rite for the Jews, which they never forgo.”

Asked by the interview whether the Jews do this to this day, he replied, “Absolutely. The French kings and the Russian czars discovered this in the Jewish quarters. All the massacring of Jews that occurred in those countries were because they discovered that the Jews had kidnapped and slaughtered children, in order to make the Passover matzos.