Wikipedia's first sentence called it “part of a statement made by abdul rahman hassan azzam”. Today it says “war to take place with the proposed establishment of a jewish state”. This article was not filed under it. Today it is filed under Incitement to genocide of Jews.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2025 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2025
Azzam Pasha quotation was part of a statement made by Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam , the Secretary-General of the Arab League from 1945 to 1952, in which he declared in 1947 that, were a war to take place with the proposed establishment of a Jewish state , it would lead to "a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacre and the Crusades ." The quote was universally cited for decades as having been uttered on the eve of the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and the Arab states several months later. The source of the quote was traced by the computer scientist Brendan McKay to an October 11, 1947, article in the Egyptian newspaper Akhbar al-Yom , titled "Arab countries prepare for war" (Arabic: البلاد العربية تستعد للحرب) in a section titled "War of extermination..." (Arabic: ...حرب إبادة), which included the quote, with the added words "Personally, I hope the Jews do not force us into this war, because it would be a war of extermination and momentous massacre ... " The historian Efraim Karsh considers this quote a "genocidal threat". The Israeli historian Tom Segev has disputed Karsh's interpretation, saying that "Azzam used to talk a lot" and pointing to another statement from May 21, 1948, in which Azzam Pasha declared his desire for "equal citizenship for Jews in Arab Palestine".
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1297771626.
The opening as it stood in 2015
The Azzam Pasha quotation refers to a statement supposedly made by Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam , the Secretary-General of the Arab League from 1945 to 1952, in which he declared in 1947 that, were a war to take place with the proposed establishment of a Jewish state, it would lead to "a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacre and the Crusades." The quote was universally cited for decades as having been uttered on the eve of the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and the Arab states several months later. The source of the quote was traced by the Computer Scientist Brendan McKay to an October 11, 1947 article in the Egyptian newspaper Akhbar al-Yom , titled "A War of Extermination", which included the quote, with the added words "Personally, I hope the Jews do not force us into this war, because it would be a war of extermination and momentous massacre ...". The historian Efraim Karsh considers this quote a "Genocidal threat". The Israeli historian Tom Segev has disputed Karsh's interpretation, saying that "Azzam used to talk a lot" and pointing to another statement from May 21, 1948, in which Azzam Pasha declared his desire for "equal citizenship for Jews in Arab Palestine".
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 667194175.
The opening as it stood in 2020
The Azzam Pasha quotation refers to a statement made by Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam , the Secretary-General of the Arab League from 1945 to 1952, in which he declared in 1947 that, were a war to take place with the proposed establishment of a Jewish state, it would lead to "a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacre and the Crusades ." The quote was universally cited for decades as having been uttered on the eve of the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and the Arab states several months later. The source of the quote was traced by the computer scientist Brendan McKay to an October 11, 1947 article in the Egyptian newspaper Akhbar al-Yom , titled "A War of Extermination", which included the quote, with the added words "Personally, I hope the Jews do not force us into this war, because it would be a war of extermination and momentous massacre ...". The historian Efraim Karsh considers this quote a "genocidal threat". The Israeli historian Tom Segev has disputed Karsh's interpretation, saying that "Azzam used to talk a lot" and pointing to another statement from May 21, 1948, in which Azzam Pasha declared his desire for "equal citizenship for Jews in Arab Palestine".
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 965405524.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Phrase by an Arab leader about the consequences of a Jewish state The Azzam Pasha quotation was part of a statement made by Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam , the Secretary-General of the Arab League from 1945 to 1952, in which he declared in 1947 that, were a war to take place with the proposed establishment of a Jewish state , it would lead to "a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacre and the Crusades ." The quote was universally cited for decades as having been uttered on the eve of the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and the Arab states several months later. The source of the quote was traced by the computer scientist Brendan McKay to an October 11, 1947, article in the Egyptian newspaper Akhbar al-Yom , titled "A War of Extermination", which included the quote, with the added words "Personally, I hope the Jews do not force us into this war, because it would be a war of extermination and momentous massacre ... The historian Efraim Karsh considers this quote a "genocidal threat". The Israeli historian Tom Segev has disputed Karsh's interpretation, saying that "Azzam used to talk a lot" and pointing to another statement from May 21, 1948, in which Azzam Pasha declared his desire for "equal citizenship for Jews in Arab Palestine".
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1121347173.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “part of a statement made by abdul rahman hassan azzam”. Today it says “war to take place with the proposed establishment of a jewish state”. This article was not filed under it. Today it is filed under Incitement to genocide of Jews. Read the current article and compare.
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
massacre
3
3
3
3
genocide
1
1
1
1
disputed
1
1
1
1
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since October 7, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
part of a statement made by abdul rahman hassan azzam
Now
war to take place with the proposed establishment of a jewish state
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
