Joined at the MSC by families of hostages and former hostages from Gaza, President Herzog spoke about the ongoing efforts to bring the hostages home, and confirmed his meeting with Prime Minister Al Thani of Qatar.
President Isaac Herzog this evening, Saturday, addressed the 2024 Munich Security Conference in Germany. Speaking in conversation with senior writer at the Washington Post, David Ignatius, President Herzog disclosed further evidence uncovered by Israeli forces operating against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, of the movement’s antisemitic ideology and their practice of spreading hatred towards Jews.
The President presented a book found in a home in the Alfarkan region of Gaza, entitled “The End of the Jews” authored by Mahmoud al-Zahar, Co-Founder of Hamas, Former Foreign Minister of the Palestinian Authority. The books cover depicts swords and daggers piercing through Stars of David, and Jews drowning in a sea of blood.
The book glorifies and justifies the persecution of Jews in Europe, and praises the Nazis. It includes chapters entitled among other things: “The world’s burning hatred for the Jews “, “The general corruption of the Jews” “Reasons to expel the Jews”. It includes age-old blood libels such as the accusation that Jews use the blood of Christian children for rituals, and antisemitic tropes asserting Jewish obsession with wealth and the suppression of non-Jewish populations.
The President noted that the book was further proof of the abysmal hatred, whose stated goal is the erasure of the Jewish people – a hatred that was reflected above all in the murderous acts of the terrorist organization Hamas on October 7 and throughout the war.
President Herzog noted: "This book was written by Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar, one of the founders of Hamas, a well known political figure of Hamas. This book first of all says we should not recognise the fact that there are Jews and Jewish people, but most predominantly it hails the Holocaust. It hails what the Nazis have done, and calls for nations to follow what the Nazis have done. Now we're in Munich. On the outskirts of Munich, there's the Dachau Concentration Camp. Tens of thousands of our nation of Jews were slaughtered in Dachau. And that's the problem, meaning, we have to have a coalition of all the moderate forces in the world, fighting this ideology, and the moderate forces in the world include many Sunni countries because they will be attacked by the same jihadist as well."
The President was accompanied on his visit to the Munich Security Conference by Raz Ben Ami, Adi Shoham, and Aviva Segal – who were released having been taken captive by Hamas on October 7 – and other representatives of the families of hostages. While attending the Conference, President Herzog held a number of meetings with world leaders, aimed at promoting intense political pressure as part of the crucial efforts to secure the safe and swift return the hostages held by Hamas.
The President noted, “I met with the Prime Minister of Qatar yesterday. It was a good discussion and I think he's doing major efforts and devoting an enormous focus on this issue. It's complicated, it's difficult. One has to make sure that we know whether there is anybody who takes decisions on the other side. After all, you're dealing with people who are being hidden and scattered all around Gaza, mostly in the tunnels and we have to know their whereabouts, we are worried about the medication that came in and according to our data and information, it hasn't been received yet or by some of them, but most of them we don't know.”
He added, “So I think the most important thing too, for everybody, is to understand if one wants to move on and find a horizon and this dire situation, which was initiated by Hamas in cruelty of unprecedented record, the worst atrocity against Jews since World War Two, with rape and butchering and chopping and burning, and of course abducting, one has to resolve the issue of the hostages and bring them back home safely and as soon as possible.”
