Hamas condemns the Holocaust We are not engaged in a religious conflict with Jews; this is a political struggle to free ourselves from occupation and oppression 05.12.2008 | The Guardian By Bassem Naeem As the Palestinian people prepare to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Nakba ("catastrophe") - the dispossession and expulsion of most of our people from our land - those remaining in Palestine face escalating aggression, killings, imprisonment, ethnic cleansing and siege. But instead of support and solidarity from the western media, we face frequent attempts to defend the indefensible or turn fire on the Palestinians themselves. One recent approach, which seems to be part of the wider attempt to isolate the elected Palestinian leadership, is to portray Hamas and the population of the Gaza strip as motivated by anti-Jewish sentiment, rather than a hostility to Zionist occupation and domination of our land. A recent front page article in the International Herald Tribune followed this line, as did an article for Cif about an item broadcast on the al-Aqsa satellite TV channnel about the Nazi Holocaust. In fact, the al-Aqsa Channel is an independent media institution that often does not express the views of the Palestinian government headed by Ismail Haniyeh or of the Hamas movement. The channel regularly gives Palestinians of different convictions the chance to express views that are not shared by the Palestinian government or the Hamas movement. In the case of the opinion expressed on al-Aqsa TV by Amin Dabbur, it is his alone and he is solely responsible for it. It is rather surprising to us that so little attention, if any, is given by the western media to what is regularly broadcast or written in the Israeli media by politicians and writers demanding the total uprooting or "transfer" of the Palestinian people from their land. The Israeli media and pro-Israel western press are full of views that deny or seek to excuse well-established facts of history including the Nakba of 1948 and the massacres perpetrated then by the Haganah, the Irgun and LEHI with the objective of forcing a mass dispossession of the Palestinians. But it should be made clear that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian government in Gaza denies the Nazi Holocaust. The Holocaust was not only a crime against humanity but one of the most abhorrent crimes in modern history. We condemn it as we condemn every abuse of humanity and all forms of discrimination on the basis of religion, race, gender or nationality. And at the same time as we unreservedly condemn the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis against the Jews of Europe, we categorically reject the exploitation of the Holocaust by the Zionists to justify their crimes and harness international acceptance of the campaign of ethnic cleansing and subjection they have been waging against us - to the point where in February the Israeli deputy defence minister Matan Vilnai threatened the people of Gaza with a "holocaust". Within 24 hours, 61 Palestinians - more than half of them civilians and a quarter children - were killed in a series of air raids. Meanwhile, a horrible crime against humanity continues to be perpetrated against the people of Gaza: the two-year-old siege imposed after Hamas won the legislative elections in January 2006, which is causing great suffering. Due to severe shortages of medicines and food, scores of Palestinians have lost their lives.

Although the Hamas terrorist group does not deny the Holocaust's occurrence, the terrorist group blames the Holocaust on Jews. The Jerusalem Post reported:

Jewish leaders concocted the mass murder of handicapped Jews in order to keep from having to support them, and this murder is what the Jews term "the Holocaust," according to a documentary special that aired on April 18 on Hamas's Al Aqsa television station...

According to the documentary's narrator, Israel's first prime minister David Ben Gurion decided that Jewish "disabled and handicapped are a burden to the state," after which "the Satanic Jews" - the film cuts to a picture of a hassidic Jew - "thought up an evil plot to be rid of the burden of disabled and handicapped" - the film then cuts to piles of emaciated corpses - "in twisted criminal ways."

Complete information can be found at: PMW Bulletins Feb. 2008

Jenin,

You are trying to defend an indefensible position. Aside from Hamas' most recent perverted claim that the Jewish people were responsible for the Holocaust, former Hamas leader 'Abd Al-'Aziz Al-Rantisi declared, "It is no longer a secret that the Zionists were behind the Nazis' murder of many Jews, and agreed to it, with the aim of intimidating them [the Jews] and forcing them to immigrate to Palestine. Every time they failed to persuade a group of Jews to immigrate [to Palestine], they unhesitatingly sentenced [them] to death. Afterwards, they would organize great propaganda campaigns, to cash in on their blood." All said, the most recent claim was merely Hamas' reaffirming its earlier position.

Originally Posted by Jenin The rest of the article can be found here: Norman G. Finkelstein We are not engaged in a religious conflict with Jews; this is a political struggle to free ourselves from occupation and oppression

Originally Posted by the makeout hobo It looks like Hamas is at least trying to soften their position. Go them.

ASHKELON, Israel - A rocket fired from Gaza exploded in a shopping center in this southern Israeli city Wednesday, wounding at least 14 people, just as Israel's leader wrapped up talks in Jerusalem with visiting President Bush. The attack raised the chances that Israel will send large numbers of ground forces into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip — something the army chief has reportedly decided he wants to do. The rocket ripped through the roof of the mall, causing a large chunk of the roof to collapse in a huge pile of rubble and twisted metal. Four windows were blown out of the side of the building. 14 hurt in rocket attack on Israel - Israel-Palestinians - MSNBC.com

Originally Posted by donsutherland1 Jenin, You are trying to defend an indefensible position. Aside from Hamas' most recent perverted claim that the Jewish people were responsible for the Holocaust, former Hamas leader 'Abd Al-'Aziz Al-Rantisi declared, "It is no longer a secret that the Zionists were behind the Nazis' murder of many Jews, and agreed to it, with the aim of intimidating them [the Jews] and forcing them to immigrate to Palestine. Every time they failed to persuade a group of Jews to immigrate [to Palestine], they unhesitatingly sentenced [them] to death. Afterwards, they would organize great propaganda campaigns, to cash in on their blood." All said, the most recent claim was merely Hamas' reaffirming its earlier position.

Originally Posted by cherokee I bet if they didn't fire rockets into Israel it would help a lot with their position.

Originally Posted by Jenin Al-Aqsa TV is an independent tv channel. They are supportive of Hamas but their views are not the official views of Hamas. Throughout the last year, the Hamas movement has clarified it's opinions on peace and war with Israel and it's views of jews. If you choose to continue propagating one narrow opinion of hamas, that is your choice... but it does not make your opinion word of God.