Jihad Al-Kuffar is a fiction book that was published in 2010 and deals with events that, according to the story, happened between December 1999 and March 2002. Thus, when the Hamas Covenant was mentioned, the original version of the Hamas Charter was considered.
Incidentally, as pointed out in the reference section of the book, the quoted text was copied from a web page, which has apparently disappeared. However, the original version of the Hamas Charter can still be found in the Internet.
For instance, the following statement (which is taken from Chapter 7 of the Covenant and is briefly discussed in Jihad Al-Kuffar) was also posted on a web page still available in February 2024:
The Hamas has been looking forward to implement Allah's promise whatever time it might take. The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will 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 on and kill him!
[cf. https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/hamas-muslim-brotherhood-andrew-c-mccarthy/]
It might be worth noting that the above statement is based on:
Incidentally, as pointed out in the reference section of the book, the quoted text was copied from a web page, which has apparently disappeared. However, the original version of the Hamas Charter can still be found in the Internet.For instance, the following statement (which is taken from Chapter 7 of the Covenant and is briefly discussed in Jihad Al-Kuffar) was also posted on a web page still available in February 2024:
The Hamas has been looking forward to implement Allah's promise whatever time it might take. The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will 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 on and kill him!
[cf. https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/hamas-muslim-brotherhood-andrew-c-mccarthy/]
It might be worth noting that the above statement is based on:
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HADITH 176 (BOOK 52, SAHID BUKHARI VOLUME 4), which reads
[cf. https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih_books/single/en_Sahih_Al-Bukhari.pdf
(translator: M. Muhsin Khan) still available in February 2024]
HADITH 6985 (SAHID MUSLIM BOOK 41), which reads
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: "The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: «Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad [English translation: Boxthorn tree] would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.»"
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: "The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: «Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad [English translation: Boxthorn tree] would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.»"
[cf. https://www.iium.edu.my/deed/hadith/muslim/041_smt.html
(translator: Abdul Hamid Siddiqui) still available in February 2024]
In the meantime, as pointed out above, the Hamas Charter was changed and the new version was made public in 2017.
[cf., e.g., https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hamas-2017-document-full, still available in February 2024]
The updated text does not make any reference to the Jews who might "hide themselves behind a stone or a tree", but seems to adopt a much more moderate language, as happens, for instance, in Chapter 14:
The Zionist project is a racist, aggressive, colonial and expansionist project based on seizing the properties of others; it is hostile to the Palestinian people and to their aspiration for freedom, liberation, return and self-determination. The Israeli entity is the plaything of the Zionist project and its base of aggression.
Then, if we continue to read, we find an exceptionally stunning Chapter 20:
Hamas believes that no part of the land of Palestine shall be compromised or conceded, irrespective of the causes, the circumstances and the pressures and no matter how long the occupation lasts. Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. However, without compromising its rejection of the Zionist entity and without relinquishing any Palestinian rights, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus.
Again, the wording looks great, but someone might be a bit puzzled.
Apart from the "return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes" (where the term "refugees" should be probably interpreted as a synonym of "descendants of the refugees"), there are at least two damned questions that seem to be of considerable practical importance:
1. How is it ever possible to combine "the lines of the 4th of June 1967" with the firm determination to reject "any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea"?!?!?
2. If "the lines of the 4th of June 1967" are acceptable, why the hell had the Palestinians and their brothers/friends been making every possible effort to prepare a new war against the State of Israel for eighteen years, from 1949 to 1967?!?!?
Probably, many political pundits and gurus are inclined to answer the second question by observing that the problem of the "refugees" had not been solved. That is true, but it is also true that wars always have consequences—quite often, tragic consequences, as happened in the case of the refugees who were expelled from Silesia, East Prussia, Dalmatia, Istria at the end of World War II. Therefore, it is not so surprising that the State of Israel did not welcome with open arms many people who had left their lands in the hope of coming back after the predicted, long-awaited slaughter of the Jews during the war that had been launched against Israel in 1948...
The updated text does not make any reference to the Jews who might "hide themselves behind a stone or a tree", but seems to adopt a much more moderate language, as happens, for instance, in Chapter 14:
The Zionist project is a racist, aggressive, colonial and expansionist project based on seizing the properties of others; it is hostile to the Palestinian people and to their aspiration for freedom, liberation, return and self-determination. The Israeli entity is the plaything of the Zionist project and its base of aggression.
Then, if we continue to read, we find an exceptionally stunning Chapter 20:
Hamas believes that no part of the land of Palestine shall be compromised or conceded, irrespective of the causes, the circumstances and the pressures and no matter how long the occupation lasts. Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. However, without compromising its rejection of the Zionist entity and without relinquishing any Palestinian rights, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus.
Again, the wording looks great, but someone might be a bit puzzled.
Apart from the "return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes" (where the term "refugees" should be probably interpreted as a synonym of "descendants of the refugees"), there are at least two damned questions that seem to be of considerable practical importance:
1. How is it ever possible to combine "the lines of the 4th of June 1967" with the firm determination to reject "any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea"?!?!?
2. If "the lines of the 4th of June 1967" are acceptable, why the hell had the Palestinians and their brothers/friends been making every possible effort to prepare a new war against the State of Israel for eighteen years, from 1949 to 1967?!?!?
Probably, many political pundits and gurus are inclined to answer the second question by observing that the problem of the "refugees" had not been solved. That is true, but it is also true that wars always have consequences—quite often, tragic consequences, as happened in the case of the refugees who were expelled from Silesia, East Prussia, Dalmatia, Istria at the end of World War II. Therefore, it is not so surprising that the State of Israel did not welcome with open arms many people who had left their lands in the hope of coming back after the predicted, long-awaited slaughter of the Jews during the war that had been launched against Israel in 1948...
Last updated on February 5, 2024