Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie used anti-Semitic language in a statement commemorating Israel's independence – what Palestinian's call the Nakba (catastrophe).
Muslims must liberate Palestine from Israeli control and purge the "holy places of the filth and pollution of the Zionists," Brotherhood General Guide Mohamed Badie said Thursday in a statement posted on the Brotherhood's website, Ikhwan Online.
Badie, regarded by many in Egypt as the power behind Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, has a long history of inflammatory anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric. He notably called for jihad against Israel during the November Gaza conflict, saying that "jihad is obligatory for Muslims" and has repeatedly referred to Jews as "pigs."
"It is the land of jihad and linked to the Day of Judgment … The Messenger of God … said: 'A group of my ummah [nation] will not cease to fight at the gates of Damascus and its surroundings and at the gates of Jerusalem and its surroundings,'" Badie said in the new statement. "Because of this, Palestine is the spirit of the Islamic ummah, and liberating it and preserving it is the responsibility of every Muslim.
"The Islamic world and the Arab world and Egypt are to sacrifice for their homeland, 'Palestine' with their wealth and their children and their lives and all they possess."
The Brotherhood leader described Palestine as the "beating heart" of the Arab world, which the Arab and Islamic worlds must sacrifice to recover from the Jews no matter what the cost.
Recapturing Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque from the Jews kindles a fire in the hearts of Muslims everywhere that will only be extinguished when Muslims regain sovereignty over Palestine.
"We call on the people of Palestine to fear God and to reconcile themselves, and unite with each other the greatest target, which is the liberation of the homeland and the return of the refugees and purging the holy places of the filth and pollution of the Zionists and to agree that every road that does not lead them to this goal they should put behind and not follow the ways of the devil," Badie said.