Debunking Henry Ford and the First Hamas Charter

This was the first piece I wrote after the disaster of October 7th, 2023

 

      Below is an excerpt from Article 22 of the original Hamas Charter, adopted in 1988 and in effect until 2017.  These two quoted paragraphs are pure anti-Semitic ideology �" and show the influence of Henry Ford’s old, mass-produced propaganda.  This is falsified history, squarely in the manner and method of Ford’s propaganda -- but supplemented with accusations set more recently than Ford’s 1920s crusade.   

     The method is an example of anti-Semitic scapegoating, in which any and every problem in the society, real or imagined, is traced back to the Jews, to cast them as the ultimate villain.  This method uses fabricated wild accusations, exaggeration, distortions, and half-truths.  In the case of the Hamas Charter, this is accompanied by an idealized and malicious Jihad-centered version of Islam -- malicious toward the Jews and Israel, and authoritarian toward Muslims.  You can see this document in its entirety, without comment, at the Yale Law Center Avalon Project online. 

Excerpt from charter:    

     “With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests. With their money they were able to control imperialistic countries and instigate them to colonize many countries in order to enable them to exploit their resources and spread corruption there. 

         “You may speak as much as you want about regional and world wars. They were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it.”  [end of excerpt] 

 

In 2017, Hamas replaced their original charter with a cleaned-up “more modern” version.  This change was about image and discretion, and not indicative of a change of mind.  The above quotes, obviously incriminating, were omitted.  Also omitted was a complimentary reference to “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,” a known fake, that Henry Ford used extensively in his own propaganda. Hamas needed to omit the accusation that the Jews were behind world revolutions, because they were making allies with revolutionaries and aspiring revolutionaries.  

Also new in the 2017 document was a passage that played to Christian interests.  Retained but reworded in 2017 was the confinement of women’s equality to the realm of struggle against the Jews and Israel.  Retained as well, but refined, and “modernized” was the document’s central concept of the elimination of Israel as a sacred duty of Muslims everywhere, and the fusion of ultranationalism with a version of Islam which of course is not espoused by all Muslims, to say the least.   

Regarding my own Jewish people, in these documents, we are under ideological threat, as is the very existence of Israel, in particular.   This ideology was one of the factors enabling the massive physical attack on October 7th, -- directed against Israeli Jews, especially, and any other people amongst them, near the Gaza border.  May we be strong and of good courage, and may all the hostages be quickly returned home.   

May all parties relevant to this tragic war, be imbued with clear thinking.