French-Moroccan Imam Criticizes Hamas: It Uses Palestinians as Human Shields

During a recent TV debate, French-Moroccan Imam Rachid Birbach said that the Palestinian people were caught between a rock and a hard place: between the Israeli bombardments and the "even more terrible" abuse and siege by Hamas, which "has been using them as human shields." Birbach further said: "We reject extremism, be it Islamic or Israeli extremism."

Following are excerpts from the debate, which aired on France 24 TV on July 24, 2014:

Rachid Birbach: We are talking about human rights and about the killing of 600 Palestinians. This is the reason that people [in France] are demonstrating...

TV host: By now, it is 700 Palestinians.

Rachid Birbach: Well, how many millions of Muslims died in the Central African Republic? How many died in Burma? Why don't we see human rights groups take to the streets of Paris to protest this...?

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I cry my heart out at night over the [plight] of the Palestinians, but unlike those who say that this is an Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I say that it is a conflict between Israel and Hamas. We must understand this.

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I don't understand why Hamas opposes peace in such an insane manner. They reject this. When Egyptian diplomacy intervened and proposed a ceasefire, Hamas rejected it.

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I'd like to make myself clear: I support Gaza and Palestine. I am against oppression. The Palestinian people are caught between a rock and a hard place: between the Israeli bombardments, on the one hand, and the abuse and siege by Hamas, on the other hand – and the latter is even more terrible. Hamas has been using them as human shields.

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Israel has the right to retaliate and defend its country, but this is exaggerated...

Palestinian political activist Rabi'a Hamou: I object. This is not their country.

TV host: In order to move on, it is not only our guest Rachid Birbach...

Rabi'a Hamou: I feel as if I am talking to Netanyahu, not to your guest...

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Rachid Birbach: When the so-called pro-Palestinian demonstrators took to the streets – and as Allah is my witness, I support Palestine – our young [Muslims] started to curse the Jews, calling them the offspring of apes and pigs, and quoting Koranic verses and hadiths... Do you know what the Jewish community of Sarcelles did? The policemen themselves attested to this. [The Jews] started to sing the French national anthem, as if to say: "We are, above all, French citizens – even before we are Jews."

This is my message: Here, on French soil, we are French. We reject extremism, be it Islamic or Israeli extremism. We support peace.

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