Dome of the Rock is seen from inside Al-Aqsa Mosque through a doorway in Jerusalem’s Old City November 16, 2021. Picture taken November 16, 2021. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

The Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry of Religious Affairs posted guidelines for mosque preachers last week, instructing preachers what content they should include in their Friday sermons.

The most horrific part of the instructions was a quote from a Hadith, which teaches that the End of Time — the redemption of humanity — is contingent on Muslims killing and eventually exterminating all Jews:

“The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, and the rock or a tree will say: ‘Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him’; except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews.”

[PA Ministry of Religious Affairs, Facebook page, Oct. 18, 2023]

Following so close to the October 7 atrocities committed by Hamas, this PA religious message to Palestinians is first and foremost elevating the horrific massacre of 1,400 Jews to constitute Islamic worship. In addition, it is a clear message that Allah/Islam want Palestinians to leave their mosques after Friday prayers and set out to murder more Jews.

The PA religious establishment is notorious for teaching Palestinians that it is their destiny as Muslims to exterminate the Jews.

For example, a decade ago, the PA Mufti, the highest PA religious figure, explained at a Fatah event that the current Palestinian conflict against Israel is not a nationalistic fight for Palestinians, but rather for the Muslim destiny to exterminate Jews:

PA Mufti Muhammad Hussein, at a Fatah event in Jerusalem: 

Forty-seven years ago, the [Fatah] revolution started. Which revolution? The modern revolution of the Palestinian people’s history. In fact, Palestine in its entirety is a revolution, since [Caliph] Umar came [to Jerusalem, 637 CE], and continuing today, and until the End of Days. The reliable Hadith, in the two reliable collections, Bukhari and Muslim, says:

“The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until you fight the Jews.

The Jew will hide behind rocks or trees.

Then the stones or trees will call:

‘Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’

Except the Gharqad tree [which will keep silent].”

Therefore it is no wonder that you see Gharqad [trees]

surrounding the [Israeli] settlements and colonies… [emphasis added]

[Official PA TV, Jan. 9, 2012]

Aside from the promotion of murder of Jews, the PA’s recent instruction sheet also included the current prominent PA libel that misrepresents the Palestinian Islamic Jihad missile that landed in a parking lot near a hospital killing approximately 50 Gazans, as an Israeli attack on the hospital killing 500.