Ideology of Hezbollah - Attitudes, Statements, and Actions Concerning Jews and Judaism

Attitudes, Statements, and Actions Concerning Jews and Judaism

Hezbollah has declared that it distinguishes between Zionism and Judaism.

• On 30 November 2009, while reading the party's new political manifesto, Hassan Nasrallah declared "Our problem with is not that they are Jews, but that they are occupiers who are raping our land and holy places."

• In a Pro-Palestinian Convention held in Beirut in 2005, Hezbollah representative in the Lebanese Parliament Abdallah Qussayr stated that "Hezbollah has never been against religions. Hezbollah supports all religions, it supports interfaith dialogue, and it has no problem with any religion. Hezbollah considers Zionism to be the enemy, not the Jews as a people or a religion."

• According to Joseph Alagha, Hezbollah "only regards the Jews living in Israel as Zionists, who should be killed". Alagha concluded that Hezbollah "neither discriminates against the Jews as a religion nor as a race" and that it is "not anti-Semitic in its overall orientation."

• Commenting on a recent project for rebuilding the Maghen Abraham Synagogue in Beirut, Hussein Rahhal, a spokesman for Hezbollah said that the group supported the restoration of the synagogue: "We respect the Jewish religion just like we do Christianity… The Jews have always lived among us. We have an issue with Israel's occupation of land."

However, the group has been accused of using antisemitism.

• Robert S. Wistrich devotes an entire chapter of his comprehensive, worldwide history of anti-Semitism, A Lethal Obsession, to Hezbollah and other like-minded anti-Semitic groups. In the book, Wistrich described Hezbollah's anti-Semitism as "contempt normally reserved for weak and cowardly enemies. Like the Hamas propaganda for holy war, that of Hezbollah has relied on the endless vilification of Jews as 'enemies of mankind,' 'conspiratorial, obstinate, and conceited' adversaries full of 'satanic plans' to enslave the Arabs. It fuses traditional Islamic anti-Judaism with Western conspiracy myths, Third Worldist anti-Zionism, and Iranian Shiite contempt for Jews as 'ritually impure' and corrupt infidels."

• Jeffrey Goldberg, staff writer for The New Yorker, described the group as a "very, very radical, anti-Semitic organization." He stated that Hezbollah has embraced an ideology "melding of Arab nationalist-based anti-Zionism, anti-Jewish rhetoric from the Koran, and, most disturbingly, the antique anti-Semitic beliefs and conspiracy theories of European fascism." An article by Jeffrey Goldberg which was published in The New Yorker in 2002 quoted Ibrahim Mousawi, the director of English-language news at Al Manar, calling the Jews "a lesion on the forehead of history."

• The Hezbollah-owned and operated television station Al-Manar was criticized for airing "anti-Semitic propaganda" in the form of a television drama depicting a Jewish world domination conspiracy, and for making accusations that Jews deliberately spread AIDS. Hezbollah also used antisemitic educational materials designed for 5-year-old scouts.

• In 1996, Hezbollah called on Muslims to boycott the movie Independence Day, calling it "propaganda for the so-called genius of the Jews and their alleged concern for humanity." In the movie, a Jewish scientist played by Jeff Goldblum helps save the world from an alien invasion. Goldblum replied that "Hezbollah has missed the point: the film is not about American Jews saving the world; it's about teamwork among people of different religions and nationalities to defeat a common enemy." Hezbollah's anti-Jewish crusade, Goldblum added, "does not sit well with me."

• Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a Lebanese writer and political analyst, devoted an entire chapter of her book Hizbu'llah: Politics and Religion to an analysis of Hezbollah's anti-Jewish beliefs. Sadd-Ghorayeb argues that although Zionism has influenced Hezbollah's anti-Judaism, "it is not contingent upon it" because Hezbollah's hatred of Jews is more religiously motivated than politically motivated.

• According to Shaul Shai, The Hassan Nasrallah has often made sharp anti-Semitic statements that not only revile Israel as a state, but also the entire Jewish people, while using themes taken from classic and Muslim anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitic statements have also been attributed to prominent figures in Hezbollah and to Hassan Nasrallah.

• In a 1998 speech marking the Day of Ashura, and published in Hassan Nasrallah's official website at that time, Nasrallah referred to Israel as "the state of the grandsons of apes and pigs – the Zionist Jews" and condemned them as "the murderers of the prophets." MEMRI, CAMERA and Shaul Shai interpret this language as broadly antisemitic.

• According to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hassan Nasrallah, speaking at the Shi'ite Moslem "Ashura" flagellation ceremony on 9 April 2000, said: "The Jews invented the legend of the Nazi atrocities… Anyone who reads the Koran and the holy writings of the monotheistic religions sees what they did to the prophets, and what acts of madness and slaughter the Jews carried out throughout history… Anyone who reads these texts cannot think of co-existence with them, of peace with them, or about accepting their presence, not only in Palestine of 1948 but even in a small village in Palestine, because they are a cancer which is liable to spread again at any moment.”

• According to Shaul Shai, Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech delivered in Beirut and aired on Al-Manar TV on 28 September 2001: "What do the Jews want? They want security and money. Throughout history the Jews have been Allah's most cowardly and avaricious creatures. If you look all over the world, you will find no one more miserly or greedy than they are."

• Badih Chayban in his 23 October 2002 article in The Daily Star, Nasrallah said that "if all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide."
• Saad-Ghorayeb quotes Hassan Nasrallah as saying, "If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice, I do not say the Israeli."

• Saad-Ghorayeb quotes Hezbollah's Deputy-General Shaykh Na'im Qasim as saying, "The history of Jews has proven that, regardless of the Zionist proposal, they are a people who are evil in their ideas."

• Appearing on Al-Manar television, Hassan Nasrallah praised well known European Holocaust deniers David Irving and Roger Garaudy.