Muslim Brotherhood Threatens Jews Refuses to Accept Israel

The Muslim Brotherhood’s founder, Hassan al-Banna, was a devout admirer of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. In 1942, during World War II, al-Banna set up Brotherhood branches in Transjordan and Palestine. Many of its members participated in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-1949.

In August 1948, al-Banna told the New York Times, “If the Jewish state becomes a fact, and this is realized by the Arab peoples, they will drive the Jews who live in their midst into the sea.” He said this was a figure of speech but added that the quarter million Jews living in Arab countries had become “fifth-columnists” even though they had been “loved as neighbors in accordance with the precepts of the Islamic religion, which respects the rights and liberty of other religions and minorities.”

He added that “Palestine is a Moslem question, not an Arab question, because the city of Jerusalem is the site of the sacred al-Aqsa Mosque” and that “even if we are beaten now in Palestine, we will never submit. We will never accept the Jewish state.”

Source: Dana Adams Schmidt, “Aim To Oust Jews Pledged By Sheikh; Head of Moslem Brotherhood Says U.S., British ‘Politics’ Has Hurt Palestine Solution,” New York Times, (August 2, 1948).