Netanyahu: Muslim cleric's words 'grave'

JERUSALEM, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called for an investigation Sunday into a Muslim cleric's televised Hadith reading calling for the killing of Jews.

Sheik Mohammed Hussein said he was only quoting a passage, not calling for the killing of Jews himself, The Jerusalem Post reported.

"I can't change the Hadith," Hussein said on Israel Radio.

Netanyahu has asked Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to open an investigation into what he has called an incitement.

"These are grave words that the world needs to condemn," Netanyahu said.


Energy Minister Uzi Landau said "this is not coming from Hamas, which we are used to. This is coming from Palestinian Authority television. If that is not anti-Semitism, then I don't know what is."

The quote came last week during a televised celebration of the 47th anniversary of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.

"The Hour (of Resurrection) will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jew will hide behind stones or trees. Then the stones or trees will call: 'Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,'" the Hadith, attributed to the prophet Mohammed, reads.