Senior Palestinian slams cleric for anti-Semitism

[Colorado Blue]

A top Palestinian minister called on Wednesday for the suspension of a Muslim preacher who described Jews as "a virus resembling AIDS" and questioned the Holocaust in a sermon broadcast live on Palestinian television.

Palestinian Minister of Information Nabil Shaath told Reuters he had asked the Muslim Waqf and Religious Affairs Ministry, who employ the cleric, "to suspend him, investigate him and prevent him from delivering further sermons on Fridays."

It was one of the strongest signs of action from President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority against incitement, following criticism from Israel that it is not doing enough on that front to ensure confidence and allow peacemaking.

In his sermon at a Gaza Strip mosque last Friday, cleric Ibrahim Mdaires denied that six million Jews were killed in the World War II Nazi Holocaust. His message was broadcast live on a government-run television station. "The entire Islamic nation was lost because Israel is a cancer spreading through the body of the Islamic nation, and because Jews are a virus resembling AIDS, from which the entire world suffers," Mdaires said.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050518/ts_nm/mideast_palestinian_cleric_dc_1