Abdul Hadi Palazzi

According to scholar Dina Lisnyansky, Palazzi "created his own niche. Being born into an immigrant family, he combined the democratic rights of western Europe with a love for Islam," but added his Zionist mission. As a result, "he is a radical too, but not on the radicals’ side. He is fighting everything that political Islam promotes." She explains, "One of the reasons why he is not on some blacklist in Iran is the fact that he, unlike Rushdie, has never said a negative word about Islam. To extremist interpreters of the Qur’an he doesn’t say ‘you are wrong.’ He would only say: ‘You got something wrong.’ His mission, therefore, is clearly not about reinventing Islam; it is about correcting the perspective."

In December 2009, Palazzi visited Israel. He met with members of the Jewish community of Hebron including Noam Arnon and David Wilder and expressed sympathy for the Jewish residents. He stated that both Muslims and Jews are descendants of Abraham, who is buried at the Cave of Machpela in Hebron. He blamed "an extremist interpretation of Islam" as a source of conflict.

In 1998, Palazzi and Asher Eder (Jerusalem) co-founded the Islam-Israel Fellowship, promoting a positive Muslim attitude towards Jews and Israel based on what Palazzi believes are the authentic teachings of Muhammad as expressed in the Qur'an and the Hadith. Palazzi serves as Muslim co-chairman of the Fellowship. Eder serves as the Jewish co-chairman.

In 1997, Palazzi joined the International Council of the Root and Branch Association and his essay entitled "The Jewish-Moslem Dialogue and the Question of Jerusalem" was published by the Institute of the World Jewish Congress. He has also been a lecturer in the Department of the History of Religion at the Università della Terza Età in Velletri, near Rome.

He was appointed a member of the board of directors of the Italian Muslim Association in 1989, and is now the secretary general of the Sunni Muslim Organization: Italian Muslim Assembly Since 1991, he is a director of the Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community, with a program based on the development of Islamic education in Italy, refutation of fundamentalism and fanaticism, and deep involvement in inter-religious dialogue, especially with Jews and Christians, but also with Buddhists and others.

Palazzi was born in Rome, Italy to an Italian Catholic father who converted to Sunni Islam and a Sunni Muslim mother of Syrian descent. After completing his secular and religious education in Rome and Cairo in 1987, he served as an Imam for the Italian Islamic Community. In addition to numerous master's degrees, Palazzi holds a Ph.D. in Islamic Sciences from the Institute for Islamic Studies and Research in Naples.

Abdul Hadi Palazzi (Arabic: شيخ عبد الهادي بالاتسي ‎), legally named Massimo Palazzi (born 24 January 1961) is the secretary general of the Italian Muslim Assembly, and the Khalifah for Europe of the Qadiri Sufi Order. Controversially in Muslim circles, as of April 2010, he not only supported Israel's right to exist but also encouraged Jews to re-settle in Hebron.

"The Qur'an cannot deal with the State of Israel as we know it today, since that State came into existing in 1948 only, i.e., many centuries after the Qur'an itself was revealed. However, the Qur'an specifies that the Land of Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people, that God Himself gave that Land to them as heritage and ordered them to live therein. It also announces that—before the end of the time—the Jewish people will come from many different countries to retake possession of that heritage of theirs. Whoever denies this actually denies the Qur'an itself. If he is not a scholar, and in good faith believes what other people say about this issue, he is an ignorant Muslim. If, on the contrary, he is informed about what the Qur'an says and openly opposes it, he ceases to be a Muslim.