When Fathi Hammad, then a senior Hamas official and Interior Minister, told Palestinians to “cut off the heads of the Jews,” he was not using metaphor or rhetorical exaggeration. He was issuing an explicit call to violence against Jews as Jews—a textbook case of genocidal incitement.
A few key points make this unmistakable:
LITERAL INTENT, NOT SYMBOLISM
The phrasing was direct and unambiguous. In Arabic political discourse, this wording denotes physical killing, not resistance, protest, or armed conflict against soldiers.
TARGETING JEWS AS AN IDENTITY
He did not say “Israelis” or “soldiers.” He said Jews, which removes any pretense of political struggle and places the statement squarely in antisemitic incitement.