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October 22, 2004
PA media urge genocide
"Expect your graveyard," Muslim cleric warns Jews.
PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Say this to the Jews," declares an imam on Palestinian television.
"Expect your graveyard. Expect the final battle." Another
Muslim cleric asserts: "It's your duty as a good Muslim to
kill Jews where you find them ... They must be butchered and they
must be killed."
A Jordanian drama that aired on Palestinian TV depicts the creation
of the Jewish state with a conflict between a group of Arabs and
an individual Jew, whose cackling, devious and taunting attributes
hearken to traditional anti-Jewish stereotypes.
In an interview broadcast two years ago on Palestinian TV, two 11-year-old
girls speak of how they aspire to martyrdom.
"What could be better than going to paradise?" one asks.
Prompted by the adult interviewer asking if her rights as a Palestinian
are important enough to die for, the girl responds, "I will
achieve my rights after I am a shahid [martyr]."
All of these images were part of an audio-visual presentation in
Vancouver Oct. 13 by Barbara Crook, the North American representative
for Palestinian Media Watch. Crook, a former Vancouverite who was
a reporter for the Vancouver Sun, now lives in Ottawa. She
was speaking at the Israel Action Committee's 11th Townhall meeting.
Palestinian Media Watch is an independent, privately funded organization
founded eight years ago to monitor and translate the three Palestinian
Authority-controlled newspapers and one official television channel.
What the growing mass of evidence indicates, according to Crook,
is a Palestinian leadership that speaks with a compassionate and
compromising voice in English, but reverts to hate-motivated and
sometimes murderous incitement in Arabic.
The issues most often expressed by Palestinian spokespeople in English,
Crook said, are the legitimate claims of contending borders and
competing diplomatic claims. In Arabic, she noted, the focus tends
to be premised on a complete delegitimization of Israel's right
to exist and, in numerous cases she showed in her presentation,
the right of Jews to exist.
Another imam equates Jews with a spring: as long as you have your
foot on it, it can't hurt you, but once you release your pressure,
the spring will bounce up and cause injury.
"I have many, many examples of this message or ones like it,"
Crook said. "Imams are explicitly calling for genocide against
Jews – as recently as last month."
Though televised Friday sermons by imams contain some of the most
apocalyptic and violent imagery on Palestinian television, they
are far from the only incitement on the box. In televised lectures
from Palestinian universities, professors explicitly deny any Zionist
claims to legitimacy.
"This is the biggest lie in history," says a professor,
surrounded by unquestioning youths.
Elsewhere on Palestinian TV, a young man who has just graduated
from high school declares: "We must expel all Israelis from
Palestine. There is nothing that is called Israel." Crook sees
this comment as a symptom of Palestinian victimhood by their own
leadership.
"He's not a bad kid," said Crook. "He's not an evil
kid, but here's what he's learned through his years of education."
In another segment, a grieving mother tells PA television that she
wishes it had been one of her other sons who had blown himself up
and not the 15-year-old boy who was the light of her life. Crook
believes this as an example of displaced grief. It may be considered
inappropriate and selfish in the current Palestinian environment
to grieve for a "heroic" shahid, so this mother may be
explaining away her tears by implying that she is not unwilling
to sacrifice a son for her nation – just not that son.
Music videos are also a common source of incitement, Crook showed.
One music video declares "You will not be saved, Oh Zionist,
from the volcano of my country's stones."
Another sentimental music video shows a young man leaving a farewell
letter to his family before blowing himself up. "For my country
I sacrificed myself. Be joyous over my blood and do not cry for
me," he sings.
Though she said some Palestinian officials have dismissed the significance
of these broadcasts by arguing that nobody watches PA TV anyway,
Crook said evidence exists that the inciting messages are having
their intended outcome. In numerous cases, she said, the language
of the notes left behind by terrorists reflect the tone and, in
some cases, the exact wording of the murderous-suicidal imagery
being broadcast. Before killing himself in a terrorist act, one
teenage suicide bomber created a wreath from pictures of himself
and the words "The brave shahid Faris Ouda."
Though all her other examples came from official PA sources, one
example Crook took was from the Hamas web site. "We shall knock
on heaven's door with the skulls of Jews," states the site.
This sort of direct equation between killing Jews and getting into
heaven has had direct results, according to Crook. One mother tells
PA television that, before blowing himself up, her son wrote to
her: "I have killed my Jew. I will go to heaven."
Another mother said she supported her son's decision.
"I said, 'If these are his thoughts, I wish him shahada
[martyrdom]," said the mother.
Even crossword puzzles can be tools for propaganda, Crook said,
showing a slide of one game, which asked: "Jewish centre for
commemorating the Holocaust and the lies" (A: Yad Vashem).
Especially notable, Crook said, is that Palestinian society has
melded the heroism of sport with the martyrdom of suicide bombers
and other shahids. The names of suicide bombers are applied to sports
teams, playing fields and table tennis tournaments. Some of the
facilities that bear the names of suicide bombers have been paid
for in part by U.S. aid money and other charity funds, including
Save the Children, said Crook. She insists that, because much Canadian
aid money flows through the United Nations, Canadian tax dollars
may be funding the glorification of suicide bombings.
"I can guarantee you that no Canadian politician knows what
is being done with this money," she said.
Though the outside world has largely accepted the narrative that
says Palestinian violence is an unavoidable result of desperation
and rage caused by Israeli policies, Crook maintains that the violence
is a direct result of incitement by PA-controlled media.
"Kids are being taught 'get out there. Be on the front lines,'
" said Crook.
Among the most striking images in Crook's presentation were comparisons
between the Nazi-era cartoons of Der Sturmer and the images
that pass for political cartooning in the Palestinian media today.
Parallels include a Nazi cartoon depicting Jews as worms in the
German apple, and a Palestinian cartoon that depicts Israel as a
worm in the Palestinian apple. Another, from the 1930s, shows an
anthropomorphic "Germany" on a cross, crucified by stereotypical
cartoon Jews. A contemporary cartoon from a Palestinian newspaper
shows "Palestine" on the cross, crucified by the same
cartoon Jews, but with an American flag as an arrow through its
heart.
These depictions of Jews reflect a time-tested process of dehumanization
in order to make violence and murder against Jews more easily palatable,
said Crook.
"We know from history where this stuff leads and it's happening
now," she said. "We are seeing this exact thing happen
in the Palestinian Authority today."
Pat Johnson is a B.C. journalist and commentator.
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