Hamas Disavows Call for Killing Jews Abroad

Fathi Hammad’s appeal for a Palestinian jihad against Jews worldwide was evidently too much even for his colleagues in Hamas.

“These statements do not represent the movement’s official positions and consistent, adopted policies that stipulate that our conflict is with the occupation…not with Jews around the world or with Judaism as a religion,” Hamas said in a statement on Monday.

Hammad, a Hamas politburo member, urged on Sunday that “All of you 7 million Palestinians abroad…must attack every Jew on the globe by way of slaughter and killing…”

The official Hamas disavowal followed a series of condemnations from PLO secretary general Saeb Erekat and U.N. Mideast envoy Nikolay Mladenov, among others.

Meanwhile, Hamas’s charter continues to call for Israel’s destruction, not a point on which Hammad et al disagree.