PA Mufti Muhammad Hussein. Photo: Palwatch.org.

On January 16th, The Algemeiner published an article about the Palestinian Authority Mufti, (Islamic scholar) who told attendees at Fatah’s 47th anniversary gathering, that “killing Jews is necessary for resurrection.”

Speaking to Israeli Radio, AP and Reuters, Mufti  Hussein responded, saying “we are not calling to kill Jews and we did not call to kill Jews, we never said ‘kill Jews.’ The Hadith says [it]. I am not responsible for the Hadith. The Hadith is in the book. The Hadith is a noble Hadith, it is not my Hadith.”

The Hadith is used in Islam to clarify subject matters within the Quran.

Palestinian Media Watch, which has been covering this story closely released a statement on Monday, denying the Mufti’s statement on Israeli radio.

“The Mufti introduced the Hadith by referring to the “47 years” of Fatah’s and the Palestinian “revolution,” thus placing the Hadith in today’s context. He then added that this is a “reliable Hadith” from the reliable collections and part of accepted Islamic law and belief”, PMW wrote.

The PA’s Minister of Religious Affairs, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, came to the defense of Mufti Hussein, saying “this is not incitement to kill Jews. We cannot change the historical religious writings and we don’t want to change them. However, we are talking now about the reality. The reality is that we want to achieve a just peace.”

On January 22nd, the Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli PM Netanyahu called on the Attorney General to begin a criminal investigation to determine whether the statements made violated Israel’s laws on incitement, saying “these are grave words that the world needs to condemn.”

Below is the video from Mufti Hussein’s speech.