A former Hamas official accused Jews of killing Christian children for blood rituals and of murdering Palestinians "in cold blood" in a recent article that was published in a prominent Egyptian newspaper.
"The Jews have not forgotten their blood-soaked past and their perverted rituals," wrote Mustafa al-Lidawi, a former Hamas official, in an article recently published in both a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) affiliated newspaper as well as in an Egyptian publication, according to a Middle East research organization.
"In the past they would seek out a Christian child in order to drain his blood for their matzas, which they would feed to their children, big and small, in order to gladden them, and today they murder every Palestinian child and hurt every [Palestinian] man and youth and every boy and girl," al-Lidawi wrote in the April 30 article, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Center (MEMRI).
"They murder [their victim] in cold blood, shoot him, bombard him with shells, drag him along the ground, run him over with cars, rip his stomach open with knives, bash his head in with stones, break his bones with clubs, and crack his skull with the butts of their guns," he wrote in a piece that was also published in Egypt’s Masr al-Gadida newspaper. "The [Israeli] settlers compete with one another in killing and torture techniques."
Al-Lidawi’s article attempts to perpetuate an anti-Semitic blood libel that falsely accuses Jewish people of consuming blood during the Passover holiday, which marks the Jewish people’s release from slavery in Egypt.
Many Arabs and others in the Middle Easterners continue to believe that Jews use blood in their matzo, or unleavened bread. Prominent anti-Semitic officials such as al-Lidawi often repeat the charge on Middle Eastern television shows and in print.
"Nothing has changed in the Jews and their customs," al-Lidawi wrote. "The Palestinians hate the Jewish festival of Passover … While the Jews rejoice, exchange holiday greetings, eat their matzas baked with blood, sip wine, congregate, dance, play, hold parties, and celebrate, they sentence the Palestinians to death," he wrote. "They place them under siege."