On October 16, 2023, following Hamas' October 7, 2023 wide-scale terrorist attack in southern Israel, in which over 1,300 people were murdered and some 200 were abducted, the Qatari state daily Al-Raya published a poem lavishing praise on the terrorists and their actions. Written by Dr. Ayman Otoom, a Jordanian author and poet who also writes a column in the daily, the poem describes the terrorists as "pure" and as "heroes" who emerged from the bowels of the "rebelling earth," from the depth of sea and from the sky while "generating death, adorning it, wearing it," and then "delivered it, so that the flood may spread."
It should be noted that on October 8, the day after the attack, the Qatari daily Al-Sharq likewise published a poem that glorified the "honorable" and "heroic" actions of the Hamas terrorists and urged them to continue fighting.[1] These poems are expressions of the unreserved support extended by Qatar and its media to Hamas, including in the context of this murderous attack.[2]
The poem in the Al-Raya daily
The following is a translation of the poem:[3]
"They rise up from the wild sea, generating death, adorning it, wearing it, then they deliver it, so that the flood may spread.[4]
"The rebellious earth will emit only rebels. If you see them come out of the deep waves, and from under the ground, and from the sky above, and from between the cracks, like water seeping between the rocks; if you see this you will know that the rebellious earth is the mother of them all.
"Revolution has two faces: one that reveals the resources of the free people, another that exposes the feebleness of the rest. When revolution is on, it is a wave that carries the righteous upwards to the heights, or drowns the people of falsehood in the depths, so that no sound will be heard from them.
"Who says that victory needs no sacrifices, who says that birth may occur without blood? Victory requires knowledge, and faith, and a program, a whisper in the womb of the earth, regardless of the defeatists, and the astrologers:
"Truth lies in the gleaming blades of the javelins,
Between the two armies; it is not gleaned from the seven stars
"Those who carry their souls in their hands hastening their march towards death preserve the honor of this nation. They know the magnitude of the sacrifices that they must offer, and those behind them know too. They go forth and are stabbed in their chest. "Their slogan is:
"If I do not leave you, my soul, streaming on the javelins
I shall not be called the son of the mother of honor and glory
Those who pay with their lives and the lives of their children, with their split lips, their bodies torn by the fangs of the wolves, with their homes that are destroyed over their heads – those people do not say that this is merely their fate; nay, they declare that this is the tax to be paid for life, for honor, for freedom; a tax for not bowing your head and bending your back before them so they can use you as a riding beast. They run from death to death and from fate to fate, knowing that what is an inevitability for others is a choice for them, and they recite,
"If spearheads are the only sailboats
One has no stratagem but to ride them
"Had you seen these revolutionaries come out of the sea, you would praise them with all your heart and give them your heart’s rose, with pride. They fought against armies and defended the thrones. Doing that, they know that they awaken the sleeping or the dead Arab conscience. They know that this conscience must be occasionally knocked on the head to awaken it.
"Death is not the end, and falling in battle as a martyr is not 'falling'; it is the beginning of victory, and exaltedness. Who can open the gate to victory but this pure group, who can elevate this nation but these heroes, fallen covered in blood? Is this the tax? Yes. Someone has to pay it. And these heroes cover our shame by standing up for it.
"This sea is secretive and enchanted. Shamir wished to wake up one day and find that the sea had swallowed Gaza. But the sea knows its people and rejects the outsiders. Shamir is dead, the sea of Gaza has swallowed him and will swallow others, until it swallows the entire usurper state."
[1] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10862, Poem In Qatari Daily Praises, Encourages Hamas Terrorists: 'Rise Up, Oh Resistance Fighter… Victory Is Nigh; Saddle Your Horses And Charge'; 'Spill The Blood Of Sacrifice For [Islam's] Sake,' October 13, 2023.
[2] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10879 - Presenters, Reporters From Qatar's Al-Jazeera Praise Hamas Attack, Celebrate Israel's Disaster – October 17, 2023; Special Dispatch No. 10872 - Qatar Enabling Hamas' War Against Israel – October 15, 2023; Special Dispatch No. 10840 - Qatar And Qatari Press Express Unreserved Support For Massive Hamas Terror Attack On Israel, Hold Israel Solely Responsible For It – October 9, 2023; Special Dispatch No. 10838 - Column In Qatari Al-Watan Daily: Hamas Attack On Israel – Like Prophet Muhammad's Attack On Jews Of Khaybar In 628 – October 9, 2023.
[3] Al-Raya (Qatar), October 16, 2023.
[4] This is an allusion to Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Hamas' name for the October 7, 2023 attack.
