IAP Conference at Brooklyn College
Brooklyn, NY

Hamas

On May 24, 1998, at an Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) conference at Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, New York, Ghoneim told the audience in Arabic, "The Jews distort words from their meanings. . . . They killed the prophets and worshipped idols. . . . Allah says he who equips a warrior of Jihad is like the one who makes Jihad himself." Ghoneim then reminded the audience of the Jews' "infidelity," "stealth," and "deceit," and told the audience that the Israeli/Palestine conflict was fundamentally not a dispute over land, but over belief: "Suppose the Jews said 'Palestine you [Muslims] can take it.' Would it then be ok? What would we tell them? No! . . . The problem is belief, it is not a problem of land." Ghoneim then led his rapt audience, which numbered as many as five hundred, in a special song, with the audience responsively repeating each refrain:

Transcript [Translated from Arabic]:

[No to the Jews

Descendants of the Apes

We vow to return

Despite the obstacles] (CHORUS)

The collaborators have sold

The Land of Ascension

Without Shame

They bowed to the Jews

(Chorus)

"Oh Ben Gurion"

Zion is ours

[Line is unclear]

A mean Jew

(Chorus)

Generations have past

Refusing humiliation

The heroes attacked

The heroes of steadfastness

(Chorus)

Oh Children of Salah [Al Din]

And Children of [Ibn al] Jerah

Jerusalem is allowed to everybody [is vulnerable to rape]

And the Arabs are bowing down.

(Chorus)