Ramadan Series “Khaybar” Is a Battle Cry Against Jews. By Ariel Ben Solomon.
Ramadan series “Khaybar” is a battle cry against Jews. By Ariel Ben Solomon. Jerusalem Post, July 11, 2013.
The Image of the Jew in the Ramadan TV Show “Khaybar” – Treacherous, Hateful of the Other, Scheming, And Corrupt. By Y. Yehoshua. MEMRI, Inquiry and Analysis Series Report No. 995, July 10, 2013.
“Khaybar”—A Middle East Reality Check. By
Jonathan S. Tobin. NJBR, June 20, 2013.
There’s a New Anti-Semitic Television Series Set for Broadcast in the Muslim World. By Sharona Schwartz. The Blaze, June 20, 2013.
New Antisemitic Arab TV Series: Jews of Khaybar Instigate War Between Arab Tribes. Video. MEMRI TV. Clip No. 3874, June 13, 2013. Transcript.
Actors of Arab TV Series Khaybar Make Antisemitic Remarks. MEMRI TV. Clip No. 3902. July 8, 2013. YouTube.
Antisemitic Arab TV Series “Khaybar”: Deception Is the Creed of the Jews, Conspiracy Their Religion. Dubai TV. MEMRI TV, Video Clip No. 3934, August 1, 2013. YouTube. Transcript.
Ben Solomon:
During
Ramadan, Muslims fast from dawn until dusk, after which they eat and many enjoy
television shows made especially for the holiday.
Arab TV
satellite channels are airing a series this year called Khaybar, referring to
the Muslim massacre of the Jews of the town of that name in northwestern Arabia
in 628 CE.
After
the attack, some Muslims, including Muhammad, took surviving women as wives.
The
Muslim conquerors charged the Jews a 50 percent tax on their crops and in 637,
after Muhammad’s death, the Caliph Omar expelled the remaining Jews from
Khaybar.
In
Islamic tradition, the chant “Khaybar
Khaybar, ya yahud, Jaish Muhammad, sa yahud,” which means, “Jews, remember
Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning,” is used as a battle cry when
attacking Jews or Israelis.
It was,
for example, chanted on the Mavi Marmara
Gaza flotilla ship in May 2010.
The
show deals with the relationship between the Jews and the Arab tribes of Medina
as well as between the Jews of Medina and Khaybar, MEMRI (the Middle East Media
Research Institute) reported on Wednesday. One Arab media outlet described the
film as demonstrating the Jews’ “hostility toward others, their treacherous
nature, and their repeated betrayals.”
The
plot deals with Jews asking Miqdad, an Arab warrior, to fight for them; he
refuses to kill women and children and is sent to prison. Another episode,
based on Islamic tradition, involves a Jewish woman whose father and brother
were killed by Muslims and who tries to get revenge by attempting to poison the
prophet.
The
film was produced by Echo Media, a Qatari company owned by Hashem al-Sayed.
The
show is set to air on channels such as Dubai TV, Dream TV (Egypt), Al-Iraqiyya
TV, Algerian Channel 3, Atlas TV (Algeria), Qatar TV and UAE TV, according to
the MEMRI report.
Sameh
al-Sereity, one of the main actors in the show, plays Muhammad ibn Maslamah,
the bodyguard of the prophet Muhammad. Sereity told an Egyptian newspaper the
show portrays the evolution of Jews’ hatred of others.
“The
hostility between us and the Jews still exists. The hatred is ingrained.
Neither Egyptians nor Arabs need this show to justify their hatred of Zionism.
The existing struggles between us provide the simplest proof of this,” he said.
Another
actor, Ahmad Abd al-Halim, said, “I play one of the Jewish characters, who
demonstrates the behavior of the Jewish human being. All he thinks about is
accumulating money.”
The
show’s screenwriter, Yusri al-Gindi, said in an interview with Al Jazeera about
the series, “The Jews are the Jews. They still act according to their nature,
despite the passing generations. They corrupt any society in which they live,
and therefore no regime can protect them with any contract or agreement.
The
crisis in the Arab world offers the best proof of this, and this is where the
show gets its current relevance.”
He
added, “It happened in Babylon, Rome, Imperial Russia and Hitler’s Germany.
Later, the West banished them to the Arab region, where they continue to serve
it [the West] to this day.”