Threats and Intimidation
Mahmoud Zahar, a leading member of Hamas, made a statement reported by the international media as a threat to kill Jewish children worldwide. Zahar said that the Israelis "have legitimised the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine... They have legitimised the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people." Basim Naim, the minister of health in the Hamas government in Gaza, later claimed that this statement had been misunderstood, and that Hamas has "no quarrel with the Jewish people". Douglas Davis of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council commented on Naim's statement by quoting from Article 7 of the Hamas Charter: "The Prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: 'The will not come until Muslims fight the Jews and kill them; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him!'".
Joods Actueel, a Belgian Jewish magazine, received a dozen death threats on its website, including a threat to carry out a suicide attack to "avenge the suffering of the Palestinians". In Turkey, Jews in Istanbul did not want to be identified as Jews and were afraid to walk down the street. In Indonesia, protestors shut down the country's only synagogue, threatening to drive out the country's Jews.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, on Dec. 30, 2008, Mohammed T. Alkaramla sent a letter threatening to bomb the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago. The letter threatened that explosives would be set off around the school unless the violence in Gaza stopped by Jan. 15, 2009. Alkaramla wrote, "It very important to make quick action before we make our decisions to set bombs."
On 7 January 2009 the UK tabloid newspaper The Sun printed a fallacious story claiming that participants in a discussion on Ummah.com, a British Muslim internet forum, had made a "hate hit list" of British Jews to be targeted by extremists over the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict. The story was widely covered in the press and prompted the police to advise prominent British Jews to review their security arrangements. It was subsequently revealed that Glen Jenvey, the source of the story in The Sun, had himself been posting to the forum under the pseudonym "Abuislam" and created the only evidence that pointed to anything other than a peaceful letter-writing campaign. The story has since been removed from The Sun's website following complaints to the UK's Press Complaints Commission. On 23 February 2009, Sir Alan Sugar, who was named as a terror target in Jenvey's story, instituted legal action against The Sun for publishing the article.
Read more about this topic: Antisemitic Incidents During The Gaza War
Famous quotes containing the words threats and and/or threats:
“Southerners, whose ancestors a hundred years ago knew the horrors of a homeland devastated by war, are particularly determined that war shall never come to us again. All Americans understand the basic lessons of history: that we need to be resolute and able to protect ourselves, to prevent threats and domination by others.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“Among the best traitors Ireland has ever had, Mother Church ranks at the very top, a massive obstacle in the path to equality and freedom. She has been a force for conservatism, not on the basis of preserving Catholic doctrine or preventing the corruption of her children, but simply to ward off threats to her own security and influence.”
—Bernadette Devlin (b. 1947)