Hamas Training Manual Revealed: Group Conceals Antisemitic Content

In a significant revelation that sheds light on Hamas’s communication strategy, a propaganda handbook seized during Israeli military operations in Gaza has exposed the terror organization’s deliberate approach to public messaging. The document reveals a calculated effort to present a sanitized image to Western audiences while maintaining deeply antisemitic rhetoric in Arabic-language materials distributed internally.

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center released findings on Sunday based on a captured Hamas training booklet titled “Guide for the Palestinian Spokesman in the World” from 2022. The document provides explicit instructions to the organization’s spokespeople on avoiding antisemitic expressions when engaging with Western audiences to prevent undermining persuasion attempts.

“During persuasive dialogue or in an effort to recruit support – it is correct to base on shared values and avoid mixing sensitive points,” the handbook advises. It specifically cautions against using phrases like “the Jewish conspiracy” when addressing international audiences.

The document contains detailed guidance on messaging tactics, warning representatives to “avoid incorrect or stereotypical use of terms such as the label ‘the Jews’ or ‘the Jewish lobby,'” suggesting instead that they frame their struggle as one against “colonial forces and their supporters.” The handbook explicitly acknowledges the sensitivity around certain topics in Western discourse, advising speakers to avoid “Islamic religious references when addressing an audience that is not mostly Muslim.”

Perhaps most tellingly, the guide warns against references to Nazi practices and “the Holocaust” – placing the historical genocide in quotation marks – and explicitly states that using “fabricated or offensive texts, such as ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’ harms Palestinian discourse, presents it as racist and extremist.”

The findings were presented as part of research by Dr. Uri Roost from the Meir Amit Center, focusing on the antisemitic doctrine of Mahmoud al-Zahar, one of Hamas’s founding members who is considered the organization’s “expert on Jewish affairs.”

In stark contrast to the messaging guidelines for Western audiences, al-Zahar’s book “Jewish Hatred – Historical Heritage” (2020), copies of which were found by IDF forces during operations in Gaza, presents a radically different narrative. The book characterizes Jews as “a contemptible, lowly, greedy, immoral and cruel people, corrupt and treacherous,” while promoting blood libels and conspiracy theories based on “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a notorious antisemitic forgery.

Al-Zahar’s work goes further, attempting to justify the Holocaust while simultaneously claiming a “close relationship existed between Nazi Germany and ‘the Zionists'” based on what he calls an “identity of interests.” The book describes what it portrays as worldwide enmity toward Jews throughout history, claiming this hatred stems from Jews being “lowly people” and from their “economic corruption.”

Security analysts point out that this dual messaging strategy – presenting a moderate face to the West while maintaining extreme ideological positions internally – is a common tactic among extremist organizations seeking international legitimacy.

The research author emphasized that al-Zahar’s antisemitic doctrine, presented exclusively in Arabic, provides authentic evidence of the antisemitic views prevalent in Hamas leadership. The report suggests that this dehumanization of Jews helped inspire the violence and cruelty that characterized the October 7 attacks, which claimed the lives of approximately 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals.

This revelation comes at a time of heightened international scrutiny of both Hamas’s tactics and Israel’s military response in Gaza, offering a window into the carefully crafted messaging strategies employed by the organization as it attempts to navigate global public opinion while maintaining its ideological core.