Palestinian Authority leader’s Holocaust inversions: An assault on the Jewish people
Today, as Israel commemorates Yom HaShoah—Holocaust Remembrance Day—and remembers the six million Jews exterminated, the Holocaust continues to be invoked in the most disturbing and distorted ways by many Palestinian Authority officials, throughout PA television and print. Of those, few have been as systematic, aggressive, and cynical as Jibril Rajoub.
Palestinian Media Watch has documented at least 17 instances in which Rajoub compared Israel to the Nazis since last Yom HaShoah alone (see all examples below). Just this month, Rajoub again called Israel "neo-Nazis" and accused it of ethnic cleansing. For years, Rajoub has libeled Israel as committing a "holocaust" against Palestinians and has even framed Palestinians as the true victims of the Holocaust, relegating Jewish suffering to a "lie" and a "complex" used to justify Israel's existence.
According to the IHRA working definition, Antisemitism includes "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis." While Rajoub does this often, perhaps his most cynical statement is to reduce Jewish trauma to a European problem dumped on the Palestinians, saying "We are the victims. We are the scapegoat for what happened."
This intentional perversion of history is meant to demonize Jews and delegitimize the Jewish state. That such statements come from a high-ranking Palestinian Authority official—the one in charge of youth, sports, summer camps, and its ruling party's Central Committee—makes them all the more dangerous.
The following are the instances documented by PMW of Jibril Rajoub viciously appropriating and abusing the memory of the Holocaust just since last Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "We are laying the foundations to build bridges of communication with this world, where changes are taking place, and the direct cause of these changes are the crimes of this occupation (i.e., Israel), the ethnic cleansing, these neo-Nazis."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, April 6, 2025]
[Question:] Do you think the Israeli government in its current composition is suitable for the type of solutions you are talking about?
[Rajoub:] They are neo-Nazis. They pose a threat to world peace with their racism and fascism. Therefore, the option before us is the Arab will and a united Arab position against them."
[Shorouk News (Egypt), April 6, 2025; Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, April 7, 2025]
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "We believe that Europe is emerging from the Holocaust complex. We are paying the price for crimes that were committed in a place and time to which we were not a party. We are the victims. We are the scapegoat for what happened."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page,
March 23, 2025]
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "We are recognized by 149 [states] all over the world from the international community as a state, except Israel, America, and those who are suffering from the inferiority complex of what happened somewhere last century. We should not be a scapegoat for the Holocaust. I don't think that it's fair for the grandchildren of the victims of the Holocaust to practice, to exercise, the same against the Palestinians."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page,
March 7, 2025]
"Regarding the support of US President Donald Trump's administration for the policy of Netanyahu's government, Rajoub explained that 'the Trump administration does not just support this policy but is part of them. All those working in America's foreign policy are part of the fascist right-wing and neo-Nazis who rule in Israel, without exceptions.'"
[Anadolu (Turkish state-run news agency), March 3, 2025]
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "The American administration, Trump, and this Zionist choir, the neo-Nazi choir, are trying to impose their will on the world via dictates that relate to redrawing the Middle East region. I think they have exposed their essence and their real ideas that strive for hegemony and control over the Middle East region."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page,
Feb. 12, 2025]
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "Today it's clear that Trump and his policy has been exposed, and he is 100% biased in favor of the fascist neo-Nazis who rule Israel... [Trump] announced what he announced alongside Netanyahu, who is a [Nazi propaganda minister] Goebbels and the last shout in the world of fascism of the 21st century."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, Feb. 5, 2025]
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "The Israelis built their lie based on the Holocaust. What is happening in the Gaza Strip? That's a holocaust… Same formula and same means...The grandchildren of the victims of the Holocaust are the ones who are perpetrating a holocaust in Gaza."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page,
Jan. 31, 2025]
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "In my opinion, Israeli Foreign Minister [Yisrael Katz] is a warped model of fascism and Nazism in his ideology, his tweets, and his positions…
This reflects how this [Israeli] society is fascist and racist and a model of neo-Nazis, and their policies and ideology constitute a danger to the entire region."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, May 3, 2024]
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "We hope that the efforts will bring about a UN resolution on stopping this aggression, an Israeli withdrawal, and carrying out a prisoner exchange of everyone for everyone (i.e., hostages for terrorists). I say to all relevant parties: a Palestinian remaining a prisoner will keep this wound open and will serve as justification for future efforts to release this prisoner. This will be an opportunity, and the international community must adopt this position – closing the issue of imprisonment; closing the issue of abductions (i.e., arrest of terrorists), closing the issue of the massacre being committed in Israeli prisons through living conditions that are unprecedented anywhere but the Nazi camps of the 1940s and its barbaric and fascist treatment, etc. This must end through the return of their captives and the release of our captives, as a prelude to forcing the establishment of the Palestinian state."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page,
April 26, 2024]
Al-Jazeera TV Live host: "[What is] your opinion as a Palestinian and politician regarding the speech of [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu two days ago at the [US] Congress."
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "This reminds us of Goebbels, and it reminds us of Hitler. He [Israeli PM Netanyahu] is an actor. He is the last shout in the world of fascism and Nazism… He is the last copy of Hitler and Mussolini, whether in the substance of his words or his position. He did not mention Palestine or the Palestinian cause. This criminal forgot that seven million [Palestinians] are in historical Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, and that they are seven million stones on his chest…
I say to all the Arabs and Muslims – this occupation (i.e., Israel) is targeting your stability, your security, your peace, your naval passages, your oil, and everything connected to your future. It is the enemy of us all with its policy of racist and fascist expansionism."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page,
July 30, 2024]
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "What happened on Oct. 7, [2023] (i.e., Hamas' massacre in Israel) did not occur in a vacuum. It was an act of defense and a response to a series of massacres and state terror from 1948 until Oct. 7, 2023… We in the Fatah Movement said that this is part of our war of defense against this occupation (i.e., Israel) in all the Palestinian territories… His Honor Algerian President [Abdelmadjid Tebboune]. He told me that during this war he visited, hosted, or spoke by phone with all the leaders of Europe, and they all without exception said that in the 1940s they had the Holocaust [psychological] complex that led to the establishment of a [Jewish] state-"
Host: "At the expense of the Palestinians."
Jibril Rajoub: "[They said:] Today we have a complex that will cause us to establish the Palestinian people's state."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page,
June 21, 2024]
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "We hope and wish that there will indeed be international will to set out against the worst version of fascism in the 20th century, which is [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu and this racist and fascist gang, and they are all versions of the fascism of the 1940s…
What can be expected of a government led by Netanyahu, who is the Goebbels of the 21st century, and the likes of Eichmann – [Israeli Minister of Finance] Smotrich and [Israeli Minister of National Security] Ben Gvir, who speak about the Palestinian people in the worst terms in human history? … We ask the world: Is it permissible for the grandsons of the Holocaust's victims to commit against us and our people what was done to their grandparents?"
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, Aug. 15, 2024]
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "The exposure of the Nazi fascist right-wing [Israeli] regime's shame will undoubtedly help us to create pressures and convince all the associations worldwide to demand an accounting from Israel. This also confirms that Israel cannot participate in these circles, whether it's the Olympic Committee or the football associations and international associations."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, May 3, 2024]
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "Today, Israel is exposed under the sunrays as a swamp of terror, fascism, and Nazism. [At] the International Criminal Court and the UN, Israel is being excommunicated today."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, June 13, 2024]
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "[The Israelis] are inciting against me, attacking me, and pressuring me, and they think that I am the type [of person] who can take a step back, but that's impossible. I say to everyone: There is no compromise on this just cause that concerns defending Palestinian sports and athletes from this occupation (i.e., Israel)… But in spite of all this, I attribute no importance to the neo-Nazis who are our enemies (i.e., Israelis)."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, June 12, 2024]
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "It is clear that Europe has an inferiority complex about the Holocaust, and they want to ignore the fact that the children of the Holocaust's victims are committing a holocaust against the Palestinian people in the 21st century... I again say that Europe and the Germans have a [Holocaust] complex. But they – not us, not the Arabs, and not the Muslims – are the ones who did [the Holocaust]. Does this give the descendants of the Holocaust's victims the justification to carry out a holocaust in the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, and Jenin in the 21st century?"
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, July 29, 2024]