PA daily highlights coexistence with Israeli neighbors

Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik | Oct 11, 2010

PA daily highlights coexistence
with Israeli neighbors

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Rabbi Froman of Israeli town of Tekoa hands copy of Quran to Palestinian in mosque.

Last week a fire was set to carpets and copies of the Quran inside a mosque near Bethlehem. In a positive move, the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida gave prominent first page coverage to the solidarity visit of Israeli "settler rabbis" and "dozens of settler-supporters of peace" who came to the mosque to express condemnation of the arson. The PA daily published a picture of the visit and reported that the rabbis brought new copies of the Quran to replace the burned copies.

In another positive note, two days later the same PA daily showed a picture of Israeli - Palestinian coexistence by publishing a picture of a Palestinian harvesting his olives to the accompaniment of an Israeli sitting right next to him under the tree playing his guitar.

The caption to the picture was:

"Settler from Kiryat Arba plays his guitar while a [Palestinian] resident gathers the olive harvest."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 8, 2010]

The following are texts from two articles in the official PA daily giving prominence to the rabbis' visit:

"Six settler rabbis conducted a solidarity visit to the village of Beit Fajar, near Bethlehem, bringing with them copies of the Quran. Dozens of settler-supporters of peace and hundreds of Palestinians, expressing solidarity, gathered to receive them at the entrance of the village. After handing over a box containing 20 copies of the Quran, to replace those which had been burned in the mosque, Rabbi Menachem Froman said: 'This land is the land of peace, and Allah will take revenge on those who set fire to the mosque.'"

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 6, 2010]

"Yesterday, a delegation of Jewish religious leaders visited the town of Beit Fajar and examined the destruction caused by the fire two days ago. They emphasized that the Jewish religion dissociates itself from the perpetrators... The delegation of rabbis emphasized that the aim of their visit to the town of Beit Fajar was to express solidarity with the residents and with the Muslims of Palestine. They said that those who had carried out the action are far removed from the Jewish religion, and announced that the expression, ‘God is great,’ is an expression that belongs to all three [monotheistic] religions, since God is greater than all such actions. They emphasized that they seek peace and justice. They expressed the hope that peace will be attained in the Holy Land, because the monotheistic religions are based on coexistence and peace."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 6, 2010]

PA daily highlights coexistence with Israeli neighbors

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