London-based Arabic newspaper prints antisemitic cartoon implying condemnation of Muslims who do not kill Jews

A London-based Arabic-language newspaper has printed an antisemitic cartoon that appears to condemn Muslims who do not seek to kill Jews.

The Qatari-owned Al-Quds Al-‘Arabi newspaper, which is based in London, printed a cartoon in its 20th September edition showing figures that appear to be the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and an Emirati, the former standing behind a rock and the latter casting aside a sword.

The cartoon plays off an infamous Hadith that reads: “The Last Hour would not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims kill them to a point that the Jew[s] shall hide behind the rock[s] and the tree[s], and the rock or tree will say: ‘O Muslim, O servant of Allah! This is a Jew behind me, so come and kill him!’ Except the Gharqad, being one of the Jews’ trees.”

In the cartoon, the rock is in despair, saying to the Emirati: “O Muslim…O servant of Allah…What are you doing!!?”

The implication – with the Israeli Prime Minister standing behind the rock with a tree in the background – is that the Emirati is betraying an Islamic teaching by making peace with a Jewish leader instead of seeking to kill him.

Campaign Against Antisemitism will be writing to the newspaper and the Independent Press Standards Organisation, and we thank CAMERA UK for drawing attention to the matter.