Senior al-Qaeda leader calls for attacks on Jews, Americans over President Trump’s embassy move to Jerusalem
The call comes after Vice-President Mike Pence told Israel’s parliament the embassy would be moved by the end of 2019, triggering protests from Arab lawmakers who were then thrown out
A senior al-Qaeda leader has called on Muslims “everywhere” to rise up and kill Jews and Americans in response to US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
In a video released on Monday, Khalid Batarfi said Trump’s decision was “a declaration of a new Jewish-Crusader war” and every Muslim had a duty to “liberate” the holy city, the SITE Intelligence monitoring group reported.
“No Muslim has the right to cede Jerusalem no matter what happens,” said Batarfi, a top commander with the group’s powerful Yemen-based branch. “Only a traitor would give it up or hand it over.”
“Let them [Muslims] rise and attack the Jews and the Americans everywhere,” he said, in the 18-minute video titled “Our Duty Towards Our Jerusalem”.
