The most important religious figure in the Palestinian Authority and the closest to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, continues to tell Palestinians that the conflict with Israel is an uncompromising religious war for Islam against Israel and Jews.
Mahmoud Al-Habbash, who was appointed by Abbas as his personal advisor on Islam and the PA’s Supreme Shari’ah Judge, recently stated that conflict today with Israel is “The Battle of History between Islam and the enemies of Islam.” Israelis/Jews are the“enemies of Islam,” “enemies of Muslims,” have a “culture of Satan,” and represent “evil.” Worse yet, Al-Habbash explained that the current battle is not just another battle on behalf of Islam. It is the ultimate battle described in the Kouran as the “final promise,” leading to great destruction for the “Children of Israel.”
It should be noted that Al-Habbash teaches this message of epic religious war to a very religious Palestinian Muslim population. Polls consistently find that 95 percent of Palestinians saying that religion is “important” for them.
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While depicting the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis not as a political conflict but as one between Islam and “the culture of Satan,” Al-Habbash referred to “the final promise.” “The final promise” is mentioned in the Koran in Sura 17 where Allah addresses the Jews, referred to as “the Children of Israel,” and can be seen as referring to either a battle of the past or a battle in the future in which Jews experience “[total] destruction.” (See below).
In his talk, Al-Habbash explicitly said that he and others interpret this as referring to a battle yet to come, and the battle with Israel today over Jerusalem is “the spark of the battle,” meaning, the beginning of this war of destruction: