Calamity upon calamity, such as COVID-19 and climate change, are befalling mankind because of widespread injustice. Thus stated the Palestinian Authority’s Supreme Sharia Judge Mahmoud Al-Habbash in a recent televised sermon.

Al-Habbash pointed to Islamic religious texts warning that all this and more would happen to “all who are silent in the face of injustice, who agree with injustice, and who defense the oppressors.”

“Allah is liable to bring down punishment on everyone… I think that today we are seeing the realization of this… All of humanity, from one end of the earth to the other, is being included in…this punishment that is befalling all of humanity – the rise in prices, economic collapse, epidemics, climate change, global warming – everything that is happening in the universe is because of the injustice,” he insisted.

And what is this injustice against which he rails? Why, it’s the “Israeli occupation,” of course!

“Is there a greater injustice than the injustice directed against us? Our land was stolen, our people were expelled, our holy sites were desecrated, and not only is the entire world silent facing the oppressors but they are also blaming the victim,” charged Al-Habbash.

Yes, top Palestinian leaders are telling their people that the coronavirus pandemic should be blamed on Israel.

In addition to being the PA’s top Sharia judge, Al-Habbash is also the senior religious advisor to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. To put this in context, it would be as if the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court and the top religious advisor to the President of the United States came together and issued a joint statement blaming COVID-19 on the Jews or any other minority that had displeased them.

[Translation of Al-Habbash’s televised address came from Palestinian Media Watch.]