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The Palestinian Authority and 9/11: An illustrated history of hatred of America

Ephraim D. Tepler and Itamar Marcus  |
  • PA cartoons cheered Bin Laden, mocked the US, and presented Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims as the true victims of 9/11

Today, we commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the heinous 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. As we move further away along the spectrum of time from the attacks of 2001, it is worth remembering the way that the Palestinian Authority celebrated the attacks year after year with cartoons glorifying Bin Laden or mocking and attacking the US.

The PA’s official media made a concerted effort to bash the United States by rubbing salt in its most sensitive wounds and by depicting America as evil while appropriating Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims as the victims.

In this cartoon below, Bin Laden is shown forming a victory sign with his fingers, which are made up of the smoldering Twin Towers next to a plane about to fly into them.

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, September 12, 2007]

In this next cartoon, the PA depicts Iran and Iraq as the real victims of 9/11.

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, September 11, 2006]

Another cartoon shows the PA’s view that the real victims of 9/11 were Iraq and the Palestinians:

Text on one tower: “Palestine”

Text on the other tower: “Iraq”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida and Palestinian daily Al-Quds, September 12, 2003]

The PA mocks the US by portraying Uncle Sam fleeing in terror from the date “September 11.”

Text: “September” followed by legs that form “11”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al Jadida, reprinted from Al-Wattan of Kuwait, September 11, 2002]

In an effort to say that the US is immoral and imperialistic, the cartoon places the Twin Towers over a mass of dead bodies who are supposedly the victims of American imperialism.

Text on wall: “September,” Twin Towers form “11” over dead bodies

Text on down tower: “Rights of Nations”

Text on up tower: “American hegemony”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, reprinted from Al-Khalij (UAE), September 11, 2002]

Below, the PA shows that it believes that 9/11 was an American conspiracy against Arabs and Muslims:

After the massacre and atrocities committed by Palestinians in southern Israel on October 7, a senior Palestinian official repeated the accusation that the US knew about the 9/11 attacks but wanted them to happen:

 “They [Israel] knew about this [Oct. 7 attack] and were silent because they wanted that what happened would happen, just as their teacher [America] did in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.”

[Fatah Revolutionary Council member Adnan Al-Damiri, Facebook page, Dec. 20, 2023]

Here the PA accuses Israel of using the 9/11 attack on America as an excuse to attack Palestinians, and it gives a nod to the Palestinian libel of Jews as terrorists:

The two letters “L” of Ramallah take the form of the Twin Towers and the “o” in TERRORISM takes the form of a Jewish star.

[Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam, October 19, 2001]

The PA claimed that 9/11 was just an excuse to jail Arabs and Muslims:

Two US jail cells, one with Arabs and the other with Muslims representing an 11, and text in Arabic reading: “September”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, September 11, 2002]

Here, the PA tries claims that Arabs and Muslims are the real victims of 9/11, rather than America.

Two smoldering towers, Arabs and Muslims.

Text on right tower: “Muslims”

Text on left tower: “And the Arabs”

[Palestinian daily Al-Quds, Sept. 11, 2002; Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 13, 2002]

The fact is that nothing about the Palestinian Authority has changed until this day. As Palestinian Media Watch continues to bring to the fore, the PA constantly demonizes America and appropriates itself as the victim of the crimes that it openly supports, such as the October 7 massacre.

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