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Israel celebrates 72, yet in PA world Israel still does not exist

Nan Jacques Zilberdik and Itamar Marcus  |

Text on screen: “Do not be afraid, beloved Palestine, you will be fine”‎

April could be called “creative map month” in the PA. As Palestinian Media Watch ‎has documented, the PA as policy always completely erases Israel in maps and ‎replaces it with “Palestine.” But this past month, to remind Palestinians to “stay at ‎home” everywhere in the “homeland” because of the Coronavirus, the PA and ‎Fatah maps erasing Israel have been even more creative than usual. ‎

Fatah posted a video with several cartoons and drawings of which many displayed ‎the PA map of “Palestine” erasing all of the State of Israel. In one of those maps ‎‎(above), a woman wearing medical garb embraces “Palestine” in the colors of the ‎Palestinian flag while text on the screen says: “Do not be afraid, beloved Palestine, ‎you will be fine.”‎

In another drawing, a boy is holding a Palestinian flag and writing words to make it ‎clear that for the PA all of Israel is “Palestine”: ‎

 Text on the map: “Palestine is from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the ‎‎[Jordan] River, and its capital is Jerusalem. We have no other ‎branches.”‎

Text in upper right corner: “To the mediators of the so-called ‘deal of the ‎century’”‎

Another map focuses on the PA’s method to turn Israel into “Palestine,” – terror - as ‎an AK-47 assault rifle covering the entire PA map of “Palestine”:‎

Text left of map: “The path to Palestine”‎
Text under map: “The path to Palestine is not near and is not far – it ‎is the distance of a revolution”‎

A person is waving a Palestinian flag while emerging from a tunnel through an ‎opening in the shape of the PA map of “Palestine”:‎

A rose in the shape of “Palestine”:‎

Medical personnel with “the doctors” written next to them are pulling a rope to help ‎‎“Palestine” climb out of a ditch and away from Coronavirus particles labeled “the ‎virus.” A man with “not respecting the law” written next to him is reaching up from ‎underground to try and cut the rope with scissors, while a police officer is holding ‎the man’s ankle to prevent him from cutting the rope:‎

Text: “#We_are_complementing_each_other‎
‎#Stay_at_home”‎

The name “Theresa Halsa” - a terrorist hijacker who died of cancer on March 28, ‎‎2020 – is adorned with the PA map:‎

‎“Theresa” is partially composed of an AK-47 assault rifle, and the last name “Halsa” ‎is partially composed of a map of Jordan and the PA map of “Palestine.”‎

‎[Official Fatah Facebook page, April 6, 2020]‎

Abbas’ Presidential Guard also posted an image with the PA map of “Palestine” ‎showing a child in a military camouflage shirt waving a Palestinian flag in front of ‎the word “Palestine” with the letter “L” made out of the map in the colors of the ‎Palestinian flag:‎
 

Text at top of image: “Palestine, raise your head up high”‎
Posted text: “A morning of all the best and love,‎
A Palestinian morning”‎

‎[Official Facebook page of the PA Presidential Guard, April 21, 2020]‎

The advertisement of the PA’s new Standing Proud Fund established by PA Prime ‎Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh and endorsed by Chairman Mahmoud Abbas also ‎used the image of the PA map of “Palestine” that erases all of Israel:‎

Text on right side of image: “The Standing Proud Fund”‎
Donations to the Standing Proud Fund
with account number 888000‎
at all the banks”‎

‎“The Standing Proud Fund is a national fund that has been established ‎by [PA] Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh with the authorization of  ‎Mahmoud Abbas, in order to collect donations and aid from the private ‎sector and Palestinian society during the state of emergency that has ‎been declared given the crisis of the spread of the Coronavirus.”‎

‎[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 8, 2020]‎

Text on map: “The land is borne by its residents”‎

Fatah’s Shabiba Student Movement has hung posters and handed out flyers in ‎Hebron with the PA’s map of “Palestine” that erase Israel. The map is in the colors ‎of the Palestinian flag indicating political sovereignty over the entire area and has a ‎picture of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas at its top.‎

Text on poster: “The [Fatah] Shabiba Student [Movement] committee‎
Southern Branch
Every Palestinian is a soldier carrying this homeland
Stay at home
Adherence will bring victory”‎

Posted text: “The southern Hebron region [Fatah] Shabiba [Student ‎Movement] committee carries out a series of activities to aid in raising ‎awareness and to encourage the public to adhere to the preventative ‎instructions and staying at home”‎

‎[Official Fatah Facebook page, April 10, 2020]‎

Finally, the PA denies Israel’s existence not only in maps but also in words and ideology. In order to deny Israel’s right to exist PA distorts history and claims that the Jewish people had no history in the land of Israel. Accordingly, Jews would never have come to settle in the land, however they claim, the European colonial powers wanted to control the Arab states and so they created Zionism as part of a colonial plot and sent their Jews to Israel in order to solve their Jewish problem. This argument was repeated this week in the official PA daily:

“The project of Israel’s establishment – which was meant to be the spearhead of the large colonialist projects – was built in a way that it would continue to expand and would have military superiority, and this was in order to achieve the goals for which it was planned: control over the Arab region and leaving it torn, weak, and unable to achieve any progress.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 26, 2020]

Theresa Halsa

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