A lawmaker for the Hamas terrorist group which runs Gaza recently called for jihad against Israel in a Friday sermon.
The lawmaker, Ahmad Abu Halabiya, said that jihad that this is the “one and only path” to conquer the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to liberate Jerusalem and “Palestine.”
“Negotiations and concessions are futile, a waste of time,” he said in the sermon, which was broadcast on the Hamas Al-Aqsa TV channel on April 18 and translated and released Thursday by the Middle East Media Research Insitute (MEMRI).
“This is the path to the conquest of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem. The path of liberation is the path of the Kurdish Muslim leader Saladin,” Halabiya said during the sermon. “He liberated the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Crusaders, after 90 years of occupation, during which they turned it into stables, and slaughtered tens of thousands of Muslims in its courtyard. Their pure blood was shed on the ground at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. But Saladin and the Muslims who were with him liberated that blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, just as they liberated Jerusalem and Palestine.”
“But how did they liberate them? By waging Jihad for the sake of Allah, by conducting all forms of resistance against the occupation, and first and foremost, armed resistance – Jihad for the sake of Allah. This is the one and only path,” he declared.
“Negotiations and concessions are futile, a waste of time. These run counter to the interests of the Palestinian people. The only way to liberate Al-Aqsa, to conquer it once again, and to liberate Jerusalem and Palestine, is through Jihad for the sake of Allah,” reiterated Halabiya.
MEMRI released this video on Thursday, the same day it released a video from a children’s program on Hamas's official TV channel in which viewers were encouraged to "kill the Jews".
During the show, called "Pioneers of Tomorrow", young children are interviewed by a young presenter and her "bumblebee" co-host and encouraged to carry out a variety of violent attacks.
Earlier this week, to mark Israel's Independence Day, Hamas released an animate video which featured an "alternative" to Israel's Hatikva national anthem, which called for the ethnic-cleansing of Israel's Jewish population.
Despite all of these, the Palestinian Authority (PA) chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, claimed on Thursday that Hamas is a legitimate organization and does not carry out terrorist attacks.
Hamas and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement signed a unity deal a few weeks ago which calls for elections to take place within the next six months.
Israel responded to the deal by pulling out of the talks and by implementing sanctions on the PA.