Palestinian narratives about Jews and Israelis sometimes zoomorphically portray them as members of non-human species that are considered lowly or loathsome. This kind of dehumanization is commonplace on both sides of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
The dehumanization of Jews and Israelis in Muslim and Arab discourse, and specifically in Palestinian discourse, takes place (among other ways) by portraying them as various animals (or other biological phenomena) that are considered lowly, repugnant, impure and sometimes also harmful or dangerous, such as pigs, monkeys, snakes, vampires, octopuses, rats, spiders, cancer and more.
Background
All of these animalistic metaphors are universally considered derogatory to some extent, but some of them have additional specific negative connotations in this context. Some of these additional connotations may be rooted in some traditions regarding specific animals in the Arab or Muslim culture itself (as in the case of dogs), others might be borrowed from European antisemitism (as in the case of vampiresKotek, Joël (2009). Cartoons and Extremism: Israel and the Jews in Arab and Western Media. Vallentine Mitchell. p. 61: "The Arab cartoonists revive the antisemyth [sic] of the Jew as a vampire in a heightened form. [..] This image, legacy of another age, is central to contemporary Arab-Muslim cartoons." p. 62 shows a cartoon of a vampire by Palestinian cartoonist Omayya Joha that appeared on 9 March 2003 in the Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat AL-Jadida. p. 14-19 mention the antisemitic European origins of the motive of the Jew as a vampire.).
Some scholars and activists, like Robert Bernstein, a co-founder of Human Rights Watch, and the social psychologist Neil Kressel from William Paterson University, expressed the opinion that the United Nations and human rights groups tend to largely ignore dehumanization of Jews when it comes from the Palestinians or other Arab and Muslim groups.Kressel, Neil J. (2012). The Sons of Pigs and Apes: Muslim Antisemitism and the Conspiracy of Silence. Potomac Books. .
Animal similes by species
Monkeys and pigs In the late 1980s the phrase "sons/brothers of monkeys and pigs" started to appear as an epithet for Jews in messages published by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and later Fatah in Gaza. For example in this quote from a Hamas leaflet from 1988: "O our children: the Jews - brothers of the apes, assassins of the prophets, bloodsuckers, [..] are murdering you, [..]. Only Islam can break the Jews and destroy their dream". The Hamas also used this term to describe the Jews killed in their attacks, for example when Hamas took responsibility for the 1995 Beit Lid suicide bombing it said that it had killed "20 pigs" and injured "60 monkeys". Also, in some of the recorded messages that Palestinian suicide attackers made before their final action, they called their future victims "sons of monkeys and pigs", saying for example: "We are carrying out this operation as harsh revenge against the sons of monkeys and pigs".
In 1996 the Hamas affiliated monthly magazine Falastin Al-Muslima published an article claiming that the transformation of ancient Jews to "apes, pigs, mice and lizards" that is mentioned in Islamic tradition "was actual" and that it "left its mark in the souls of the Jews who came after them". It further claimed that because the Jews felt shame at being descendants of apes they decided to convince all humans that they all developed over time from an ape to human form, and that's why the Theory of Evolution was invented by "the Jewish ape Darwin".Küster, Volker; Speelman, G. M. (ed.) (2010). Islam in the Netherlands: Between Religious Studies and Interreligious Dialogue: in Honour of Harry Mintjes. LIT Verlag. p. 224.
The phrase is used also by Palestinian leaders and officials. In 2001 Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, then the Hamas spokesman and later head of Hamas in Gaza, said: "The [Hamas] political leadership has freed the hand of the brigades to do whatever they want against the brothers of monkeys and pigs". In the same year, Ibrahim Madhi, a Palestinian Authority (PA) official and Imam in Gaza also called the Jews "apes and pigs" in a sermon on PA TV in Gaza. In 2008, the chairman of the Palestinian Scholars League, and a Hamas legislator in Gaza, Marwan Abu Ras, said "We are besieged [...] by the brothers of apes and pigs."
This description of the Jews is also repeated by officials and clerics of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank. For example: in a sermon in 1997 by Ekrima Sabri, then the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem appointed by Yasser Arafat; in a sermon in 2002 by Mohammad Mustafa Najem who in 2024 became the PA's minister of religious affairs; in 2018, by Sheikh Osama Al-Tibi in a sermon in PA TV. In 2022, by Mahmoud al-Habbash, the religious affairs advisor to the PA president Mahmoud Abbas, said in a sermon on PA TV that Muslims must abandon Al-Aqsa to "the grazing herds of humanoids" whom Allah made into "apes and pigs".US State Department. "West Bank and Gaza 2022 International Religious Freedom Report". p. 48. Retrieved 2024-04-30;
Rose, David (2023-03-17). "Britain's top diplomat in Jerusalem met cleric who had compared Jews to 'apes and pigs'". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2024-04-30;
"Abbas' advisor on Islam: Jews are 'humanoids… apes and pigs'". Palestinian Media Watch. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
In 2012 at a rally marking the 47th anniversary of the founding of Fatah the announcer declared (before inviting the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Ahmad Hussein to speak): "Our war with the descendants of the apes and pigs is a war of religion and faith. Long live Fatah!" In 2015 Raafat Alayan, Fatah spokesman in Jerusalem, called Jews walking around the Old City of Jerusalem "the sons of apes and pigs". In 2023 the Palestinian journalist Dr. Ghassan Mustafa Al-Shami wrote in the Jordanian newspaper Ad-Dustour that "the Zionist Jews" are "the descendants of apes and pigs".
This expression is also used by children and in educational programs aimed at children For example, in 2001 an 11 year children in a Hamas school in Gaza said in front of his class: "I will make my body a bomb that will blast the flesh of Zionists, the sons of pigs and monkeys". In 2013 a young girl recited on Palestinian Authority (PA) TV, a poem with the lines "Oh Sons of Zion, oh most evil among creations, Oh barbaric monkeys, wretched pigs". Same happened in 2014 on Hamas Al-Aqsa TV this time with a boy reciting the poem.
Pictorial depictions of this expression also appeared. For example in Hamas posters, and in caricatures in Felesteen,Anti Defamation League (2013), Middle East Press Review, January-June 2013, p. 10 (sons of apes), p. 19 (snake), p. 34 (octopus). Al-Resalah, (Israeli soldiers depicted as apes in Al-Resalah Newspaper (Gaza), May 10, 2021.) and Al-Quds Al-Arabi. (Netanyahu and Lieberman depicted as pigs in Al-Quds Al-Arabi.)
Dogs and wolves The slogan "Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs"Another version of the chant is "The land is our land, and the Jews are our dogs". See The Quarterly Review, Vol 260-261 (1933), p. 118. (in Arabic it is a rhyme: فلسطين بلادنا واليهود كلابنا, romanized: Falastin bladna, w-el-Yahud klabna) first appeared in Palestine in 1918-1919. This chant was used in Arab demonstrations in Jerusalem in March 1920 and 1923. The slogan was also chanted in April 1920 by the crowds in a demonstration that was led by Amin al-Husayni (who later became the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem) and by the editor of the newspaper Suriya al-Janubia (Southern Syria), Aref al-Aref. This demonstration developed into the Nebi Musa riots. Chants of this slogan became a regular feature of the Muslim Nebi Musa festival in Jerusalem during the British Mandate."Al Yahud Klabna", The Palestine Bulletin, 1930-04-09, p. 3 In the early 1930s in a meeting between Haj Amin al-Husayni and some Bedouin tribe leaders in which he tried to convince them not to sell land to the Jews they answered him: "Haj Amin don't be worried! [...] The land is our land and the Jews are our dogs".
In 1987 the slogan was used in protests and riots perpetrated by Israeli Arab citizens in Jaffa, Haifa and Nazareth, in solidarity with the First Intifada. Palestinian prisoners in Ketziot prison in 1991 used to chant this slogan from time to time, including when Iraq fired missiles on Israel during the First Gulf War. In 2020, a Palestinian was questioned by Israeli Police after he livestreamed himself shouting this slogan at a group of ultra-orthodox Jews in the Old-City of Jerusalem. In the 21st century, the slogan spread to North America. In 2006 there the slogan was chanted (in Arabic) in Palestinian demonstrations in San-Francisco organized by Palestinian organization Al-Awda.
Palestinian children also use this chant. For example, an incident was reported in 1936 where children chanted this slogan at a Jewish passenger in Jaffa, while the adults accompanying them kept silent. In 2021, while speaking to children, Abbas Zaki, a member of Fatah's central committee, glorified a 10-year old Palestinian child who (according to his story) encountered Ted Koppel in the West-Bank during the First Intifida, and thinking him to be an Israeli-Jew had started throwing stones at him while shouting "Palestine is our land and the Israelis are our dogs". The slogan had become part of several variants of a Palestinian children's song. One version is: "Palestine is our country, The Jews our dogs, Put one branch on top of another, May Allah break the Jews". Another version: "Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs. They came to our country like beggars". Another one: "The Arabs are our friends, the Jews are our dogs".
Jews are also called dogs without direct connection to the slogan. For example, in an incident in 1928 a crowd of Arabs in Jerusalem, angry that the Jews had established a screen in the Wailing Wall to separate between male and female worshipers, shouted "Death to the Jewish dogs". In the same year a group of students of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam in Haifa issued a declaration listing "Jewish dogs who dream of a national home" among the enemies of the nation.
In 1992 Yassar Arafat, who was then the PLO leader, was recorded in a conversation with PLO representative in Paris, saying: "The Jews at work. Damn their fathers. The dogs". In 2022 a video on the official Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture explained that a summer camp, where children received training in military order and discipline, was necessary because "our battle with the sons of dogs is long and we need a young generation".Rose, David (2022-07-28). "Summer camps of hate for Palestinian children as young as seven". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2024-05-24; Marcus, Itamar (2022-07-11). "PA Security Forces give "military training" to 7-year-old kids to fight Israel - "the sons of dogs"". PalestineMedia Watch. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
In Joe Sacco's graphic non-fiction novel Palestine published in 2001, he describes an encounter with a Palestinian woman who told him that Catholics like him are welcome in her house, but "Jews are dogs".
In 2007 on Hamas Al Aqsa TV program for children a 3 years old child said "We don't like the Jews because they are dogs! We will fight them!". In 2014, Adli Sadeq the Palestinian ambassador to India, wrote in an op-ed in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida that the Palestinians are "on the first line of defense in the battle of humanity against the dogs"."2014 Human Rights Reports: Israel and The Occupied Territories - The Occupied Territories". US State Department. 2015. Retrieved 2024-05-20; "Official PA daily: We are the first line of defense in the battle of humanity against the dogs". 2014. Palestinian Media Watch. Retrieved 2024-05-20. One of the participants in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel was recorded saying about the victims of the attack "Jewish dogs".