When Gazans say "jihad" they mean genocide

The Telegraph revealed this week:

The BBC has been accused of “whitewashing” the views of participants in its controversial Gaza documentary after repeatedly mistranslating references to “the Jews” and omitting praise of “jihad”.

The Telegraph can reveal that on at least five occasions the words Yahud or Yahudy – Arabic for “Jew” or “Jews” – were changed to “Israel” or “Israeli forces”, or were removed from the subtitles altogether.

An interviewee praising Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader, for “jihad against the Jews” was also mistranslated as saying he was fighting “Israeli forces”.

Immediately, Palestinian apologists insisted that the original translation was accurate:

So what does Jihad really mean, and what do Gazans mean when they use the word - do they normally mean "struggle" or "war"?

I searched for the Arabic word in Palestinian (.ps) websites. 

The first result was jehad.ps, which is the website of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, which obviously considers jihad to be primarily military.

But one of the first results pointed to an academic paper, "Jihad between the aims and means,"  from Al-Aqsa University Journal (Humanities Series) Volume Twenty-One, Issue Two, pp. 109-141 June 2017. Al Aqsa University is in Gaza. 

Here is the translation of its section on defining jihad:

Definition of Jihad (المطلب الأول: تعريف الجهاد)

1. Linguistic Definition (تعريف الجهاد في اللغة):

   • Jihad is derived from the root word "جاهد" (jaahada), which means to exert effort or struggle.
   • It is used to describe fighting an enemy or exerting effort and energy to repel an opponent.

2. Technical Definition (تعريف الجهاد اصطلاحًا):

   • According to Hanafi School (تعريف الحنفية):
     Jihad is calling people to the true religion and fighting those who refuse to accept it.
   • According to Maliki School (تعريف المالكية):
     Jihad is fighting a non-Muslim who does not have a treaty with Muslims to exalt the word of Allah.
   • According to Shafi'i School (تعريف الشافعية):
     Jihad is exerting effort in fighting disbelievers to support Islam.
   • According to Hanbali School (تعريف الحنابلة):
     Jihad is specifically fighting disbelievers.

3. Chosen Definition (التعريف المختار):
   After reviewing the definitions from the various schools of thought, the paper adopts the following definition:

   • "Jihad is exerting one's utmost ability, effort, and energy in fighting disbelievers—after inviting them to Islam and their refusal—in order to elevate the word of Allah and honor His religion.

The paper specifically addresses the obligation of jihad against Israel and its goals:

Resisting Occupation and Expelling the Invader (مقاومة الاحتلال ودحر المحتل):

1. Purpose and Justification:

   • An enemy may occupy Muslim lands for various purposes, such as:
     • Eradicating Islam and its followers.
     • Exploiting natural resources of Islamic countries.
     • Occupying lands that were historically under Muslim rule.
     • Facilitating immigration and creating favorable living conditions for settlers from the occupying state, leading to the displacement of the indigenous Muslim population, as happened in Palestine.

2. Objective of Jihad Against Occupation:

   • If the occupier's objective is to achieve any of the aforementioned goals, then expelling the occupier becomes a legitimate objective of jihad in Islam.
   • In this case, jihad becomes a compulsory duty (fard ‘ayn) on all Muslims by the consensus of the following schools of thought:
     • Hanafi
     • Maliki
     • Shafi'i
     • Hanbali
     • Zahiri

3. Obligation of Defense:

   • It is obligatory for the inhabitants of the occupied land to use all their means to repel the aggressor.
   • If they cannot achieve sufficient defense, then the obligation of jihad extends to neighboring Muslims, then to those beyond them, until the enemy is expelled from Muslim lands.
   • This is based on the principle of collective duty (fard kifaya) becoming an individual duty (fard ‘ayn) when the threat is imminent.

The word "jihad" in this context explicitly means  a religious obligation to attack every Jew (disbelievers include civilians) and to expel every Jew from the land.  

It means genocide.

Translating that as "struggle" is not at all accurate.

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What about the "greater jihad" that so many use to say that jihad is primarily an internal struggle?

That interpretation comes from a hadith which is considered weak or non-authoritative in mainstream Islam. The idea comes from Sufi Islam but has been more widely adopted colloquially among Sunnis.  Some traditionalists and Salafists critique this interpretation of jihad altogether, saying it is purely military.  

In this context, however, it is clear that "jihad" means nothing less than a holy, total war on Jews in Israel. 

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