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During a January 19, 2025 lecture at the Islamic Association of Raleigh, North Carolina, Islamic scholar Dr. Hisham Sarsour celebrated the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, as a "victory," because Israeli army had "collapsed" on October 7 when facing the mujahideen from Gaza. He further claimed that they did not kill Israeli civilians, but rather it was Palestinian civilians from Gaza, who had crossed into Israel to take "booty," that had engaged with Israeli civilians, killing them. Sarsour described the ceasefire as a victory for every child, man, and woman in Gaza, as well as for the millions who protested in American streets and universities.
He criticized the leadership of Arab countries such as the UAE, Jordan, and Egypt for expressing sadness over "this loss," and he particularly singled out the leadership of the Palestinian Authority. Sarsour condemned Mahmoud Al-Habbash, advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas and former Minister of Religious Endowments, for claiming the agreement was not worth the ink it was written in.
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Dr. Hisham Sarsour: "Why is (the ceasefire deal) a great victory? Because on October 7... On October 7, what had happened? An army collapsed in front of a few hundred well-disciplined men coming from Gaza, the largest prison in the world.
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"Those mujahideen did not kill civilians. Yes, civilians came from Gaza, because the doors of this prison were open, and some of them were looking for some booty, and they engaged some of the civilians and killed them.
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"This is a victory for every child in Gaza, for every man and woman in Gaza, for every member of this Islamic nation who has sent money to the needy people of Gaza, who went to a demonstration at a university or downtown for the sake of Gaza.
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"It is also a victory for all the free world – the millions upon millions of people who went to the streets in the U.S., in the universities, many of them are Jews against Zionism.
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"The people who are supposed to be sad for this loss are the Zionists, but look at the people who are associated with the governments in Abu Dhabi, the UAE, in Cairo – look at those governments – in Jordan, and worse, in the Palestinian Authority Muqataa. I mean, they are wailing as if they have lost.
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"[Mahmoud] Habbash, who was the person in charge of Islamic trusts in Palestine, he came out without any shame, in an interview, and said that this agreement between Hamas and Israel is not worth the ink used to write it, that this is really very weak, it should not have been there. What?!"
