Australia / Israel Review

In previous editions of AIR we have covered the ongoing hateful rhetoric, antisemitism and support of extremism and terror by the Australian branch of the pan-Islamic fundamentalist movement Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT, Arabic for “the party for liberation”).

In recent weeks, HT Australia and its leader, Palestinian-born Ismai’l al-Wahwah (Abu Anas), have continued to promote messages of violence and calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

Promoting the call to nuke Israel

On Nov. 2, the Facebook page of HT Australia shared a video from an HT Palestinian preacher at the al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Issam Amira (Abu Abdullah). In 2020, Israel banned Amira from entering the mosque for six months after he praised the Muslim youth who beheaded French teacher Samuel Paty after Paty showed his class cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. In recent years, Amira called on British Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan to “liberate Palestine” by force. He also claimed in 2021 that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 spread because Muslim rulers were permitting homosexuality and feminist organisations in their countries.

In the latest video, shared (Nov. 2) by HT Australia on its Facebook page (also on YouTube), Amira directs his words at Pakistani Muslims, and especially the soldiers of the Pakistani Army. The video is part of a social media campaign by HT Pakistan titled “The global leadership for Khalifah is ready.”

A sermon calling for Pakistani soldiers, with their nuclear weapons, to attack Israel, that was shared by the Australian branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir (Screenshot)

Amira opens his speech with a plea to the Pakistani Muslims: “The al-Aqsa Mosque is calling you, and complaining to you, about the imprisonment, that has lasted for so long, as well as the prevention of Muslims from praying in it and visiting it.” Repeating the infamous false narrative that “Al-Aqsa is in danger”, he then cries for help in the name of Muslims in Palestine that the mosque “complains to you, about the daily violations carried out by the Jews, in defiance against all Muslims.”

Muslims in Palestine, says Amira, “have high hopes in the great army of Pakistan, to move and liberate [al-Aqsa].” “It is the strongest among the Muslim armies”, determines Amira, “ranks as the ninth strongest army in the world, whilst possessing nuclear weapons.” He also claims that the number of Muslim soldiers in the world exceeds ten million.

And the duty of these fighting forces, according to Amira, is to attack the Jewish state. “For the sake of Allah, why don’t these armies carry out their obligation, which was assigned to them?” he asks.

Under an Islamic leader, he says, “these armies will immediately march to execute what is asked of them, and will liberate the imprisoned al-Aqsa Mosque.” He adds that under a Muslim Khalif, the Muslim troops will be “eager to embark on ventures of Jihad in the way of Allah to liberate al-Aqsa Mosque, Palestine and the rest of the occupied Muslim lands by force, just as they were occupied by force.”

“If these Muslim armies were to march forth”, insists Amira, “they would launch themselves like a missile towards its target, tearing it apart and destroying it completely.”

Amira calls on Muslim soldiers to rebel against their leaders and commanders because “O how al-Aqsa misses your roaming Takbeers [shouts of “Allah-hu Akbar”, meaning “Allah is the greatest”] heralding victory.”

On Oct. 12, the HT Australia Facebook page posted a press release by the UK branch of the movement titled “Being a ‘Huge #Zionist’ means being like #Putin and supporting a #Brutal and #Illegal #Occupation.” Targeting then British PM Liz Truss, who said she was “a huge Zionist”, the text argues that this “means that you support the Zionist entity’s brutal occupation of nearly 75 years,” comparing Israel’s existence since 1948 to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Attacking the “Zionist entity” and denying Jerusalem has any Jewish history, the press statement repeats the notorious and false trope, common among anti-Israeli extremist groups, that “It is important to note that Zionism has very little to do with Judaism. Many of the original Zionist leaders were atheists, while many committed Jews actively oppose the goals of Zionism.”

Two-state solution is “a betrayal of Allah”

HT Australia leader, Ismai’l al-Wahwah, has a long history of incitement to violence, antisemitism and calls to destroy Israel. Possibly due to concerns about scrutiny of his hateful messages and calls for violence, the posts reviewed below have all subsequently been hidden from the public.

In October, al-Wahwah took to social media to praise Palestinian terrorist Udai Tamimi, who killed Israeli soldier Noa Lazar at a roadblock. In his Oct. 22 post on Facebook, al-Wahwah shared a video of a group of Palestinian women visiting Tamimi’s mother to offer their condolences after he was killed by Israeli forces. “Victory is for you… Allah is aware [of you]”, says al-Wahwah in the text next to the video.

Two days earlier (in a post on Oct. 20), al-Wahwah shared pictures of Udai Tamimi shooting Israeli soldiers just before he was killed, saying, “And he got engaged to ‘my enemy’ from Paradise above …The eyes of traitors and cowards never slept…”.

In a series of other posts in October, al-Wahwah viciously attacked any coexistence with Israel in any borders as contrary to the will of God.

For example, he attacked a statement by the Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) supporting the decision by the Australian Government to reverse the 2018 recognition of west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. According to al-Wahwah (Oct. 19), the statement “acknowledges surrendering most of Palestine to the Jewish entity and demands the so-called two-state solution, [which] is a betrayal of Allah, His Messenger and the believers.” This idea of a two-state solution to the conflict, he argues, “was proposed by all the countries that created the Jewish entity in the first place… it is the solution that the traitors and normalisers of the Arab and Muslim rulers have followed.”

As was highlighted in the submission made by AIJAC to the Australian Parliament in 2021, efforts should continue to review whether Hizb ut-Tahrir, which openly supports and promotes terrorism, should be listed as a terrorist group under Australian law.

Dr. Ran Porat is an AIJAC Research Associate. He is also a Research Associate at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University and a Research Fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Reichman University in Herzliya.