Palestinian Authority intensifies attacks on PMW—at least 9 times in under 3 months
The Palestinian Authority is reeling internationally as Palestinian Media Watch continues to expose its Antisemitism, its rewarding and honoring of terrorists, its poisoning of the minds of children and adults, and its ongoing public prayers for the genocide of Jews.
While the international community is demanding PA reform and increasingly losing patience as it waits, PMW continues to add new examples to the long list of the PA's immoral and unethical policies that require fundamental change.
But instead of reforming, the PA has intensified its attacks on the messenger. Since late April, the PA has attacked PMW or attempted to suppress its reporting at least nine times in WAFA's (the official PA news agency's) report on "incitement and racism in the Israeli media."
While governments around the world recognize PMW as a meticulous and accurate source on the Palestinian Authority, WAFA has accused PMW of being "an organization that consistently produces a discourse of incitement against the Palestinians." It has even expressed frustration that PMW is treated "as a source of factual authority rather than an ideological entity."
Significantly, the PA does not demonstrate that PMW's reporting is inaccurate. It does not deny that the statements PMW publishes were in fact broadcast or that PA officials said them. Instead, it attacks PMW for exposing them and defends the lies, libels, hate speech, and terror glorification that PMW documents.
The latest attack followed a PMW report exposing PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' international campaign to spread a false accusation against Israel regarding the taxation of church property. Rather than dispute the statements documented by PMW, WAFA accused the Israeli newspaper that published the report of "inciting" against Abbas:
Headline: "WAFA monitors incitement and racism in the Israeli media"
"In the [Israeli] newspaper Makor Rishon, an article was published inciting against [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, portraying his diplomatic activities as an organized campaign of lies, delegitimizing his leadership, and presenting him as deceiving the world instead of representing Palestinian interests.
The article – titled 'Pope, King, 2 Presidents, and 5 Prime Ministers: Abu Mazen's New Lie' (i.e., refers to PMW report) – turns a political and legal dispute over church property taxation into proof of the Palestinian Authority's malicious discourse, leading to its international isolation and casting doubt on any statement it makes regarding reform or protection of holy sites.
The organization Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) claimed that the PA dedicates its time to finding new ways to defame Israel and that spreading lies and fabrications against [Israel] worldwide is the basis of this policy. It also noted that all this is happening while the PA tells the world it is 'undergoing reform.'"
[WAFA, official PA news agency, July 20, 2026]
Two weeks earlier, WAFA attacked PMW for documenting PA statements portraying Jews and Israelis as inherently genocidal and describing Zionists as "locusts," a "plague," and "scabies":
"In the newspaper Makor Rishon, an article adopted the narrative of the Palestinian media monitoring project (i.e., Palestinian Media Watch) as an authoritative source for making accusations. It turns particularly selected quotes from Palestinian media into general proof that Palestinians have a hostile and genocidal perception towards Israelis. The report, titled 'From PA broadcasts: "The Zionists came to Palestine like locusts, plague, scabies,"' (i.e., refers to PMW report) does not suffice with criticizing a certain discourse but utilizes comparisons to Nazism, Rwanda, and Cambodia to delegitimize Palestinians politically and morally, and to present their government, their media, and their narrative as a fundamental source of hatred and violence.
It added that the 'Palestinian Media Watch' organization claimed in many reports that the PA has a policy based on the demonization of Israel and the Jews, and it also accused some of its leaders of having an anti-Semitic doctrine."
[WAFA, official PA news agency, July 6, 2026]
Once again, WAFA did not challenge the authenticity or accuracy of the quotes exposed by PMW. Its complaint was that documenting PA demonization of Jews and Israelis "delegitimizes" the PA "politically and morally."
On June 29, WAFA similarly labeled a PMW report documenting senior PA officials' distortion of Judaism and Jewish texts as "incitement":
Headline: "WAFA monitors incitement and racism in the Israeli media"
"In incitement against the Palestinian Authority, an article was published in Makor Rishon under the headline 'Senior PA officials: The Bible was written by rabbis, the Talmud orders the killing of Arabs (i.e., refers to PMW report).'"
[WAFA, official PA news agency, June 29, 2026]
There appears to be a typographical or editing error in the WAFA report, which ends its discussion of this PMW item at that point. In previous reports, WAFA continued with a detailed attack on PMW. Instead, the June 29 article abruptly moves to an unrelated subject without any introduction.
Earlier that month, PMW exposed the PA libel falsely accusing the Israeli government of intentionally promoting and bearing responsibility for the high level of Arab-on-Arab crime in Israel.
The PA did not deny that its official television station had broadcast the accusation. Instead, WAFA doubled down on the libel and attacked PMW for absolving Israel of responsibility:
Headline: "WAFA monitors incitement and racism in the Israeli media"
"The article [in the Israeli media] is based on the Israeli organization Palestinian Media Watch, which is an organization that consistently produces a discourse of incitement against the Palestinians. The [Israeli media] article referred to the organization [PMW] as a source of factual authority rather than an ideological entity, thus turning its political interpretation into a 'media fact' that absolves the state of guilt [from Israel] and places the responsibility for the [Arab] violence solely on the Palestinians [Israeli Arabs]."
[WAFA, official PA news agency, June 8, 2026]
This has become the PA's pattern. When PMW exposes PA hate speech, the PA calls PMW racist. When PMW exposes the PA's glorification of terrorists, the PA calls PMW biased. When PMW exposes PA lies to Western donors, the PA calls PMW an inciter.
At times, the PA's concern over PMW's monitoring is even more explicit. On June 3, a Palestinian radio host indirectly referred to PMW's ongoing reports proving that the PA's Pay-for-Slay terror-reward program continued into 2026, contradicting the PA's claim that it had ended in September 2025.
Answering a listener's question about salaries for terrorists, the host warned listeners not to discuss the subject live:
"We don't want to talk much about the subject live because you know the Israelis (i.e., PMW) are trying to gather all the information…"
[Al-Hurriyah Radio, Facebook page, June 3, 2026]
The warning was revealing: The problem was not that the information was false. The problem was that PMW might hear it, document it, and show it to the international community.
In May, the PA also labeled as "incitement" Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar's reposting of a PMW video in which Mahmoud Abbas admitted on camera that the PA still needed money to pay salaries to terrorist prisoners. The post was viewed more than 100,000 times and was reported worldwide:
"[Israeli] Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa'ar
Reposting of a post from the site Pal Media Watch
[PA President] Mahmoud Abbas admits to continuing the method of paying funds for murder.
Mahmoud Abbas complained during the Eighth Fatah Movement Conference that the PA needs money to 'pay the salaries of the prisoners.'
Abbas said today: 'All these funds should be paid to [PA] public employees, prisoners, and so on, in addition to other expenses.'"
[WAFA, official PA news agency, May 18, 2026]
Here, too, WAFA did not deny that Abbas made the statement. It merely objected to PMW and Israel's foreign minister informing the world about it.
On May 4, WAFA attacked a PMW report documenting the PA's financial rewards for terrorists. WAFA's complaint was not that PMW had incorrectly identified the recipients of the payments, but that PMW called terrorists "terrorists":
"This is done by relying on the Israeli version and biased sources such as PMW, without presenting a counter-Palestinian version. The incitement is revealed here in the repeated use [by PMW] of the term ‘terrorists' to describe the Palestinian prisoners."
[WAFA, official PA news agency, May 4, 2026]
The same day, the PA attacked PMW for exposing its historical revisionism, through which it attempts to transform Jesus, a Judean, into a Palestinian.
Rather than acknowledge the historical absurdity, WAFA defended the fabrication by asserting that "Jesus' Palestinian identity" is part of a "recognized national-cultural discourse":
"The article uses religion and history to delegitimize the Palestinian narrative and presents any talk of Jesus as a Palestinian as a deliberate forgery and a hijacking of Christian and Jewish identity. It also relies on a biased Israeli organization [PMW] to present the PA as a body that falsifies history and exploits Christianity to justify violence, instead of relating to Jesus' Palestinian identity as part of a recognized national-cultural discourse."
[WAFA, official PA news agency, May 4, 2026]
The campaign began in April, when WAFA attacked the Israeli media as "racist" for publishing a PMW report documenting repeated PA calls and aspirations for Israel's destruction:
"'Palestinian Media Watch [revealed] segments from official PA TV, in which Palestinians call for the destruction of the State of Israel. Although Israel has just celebrated 78 years of independence, the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinians in general firmly claim that its status is only temporary, while dreaming and hoping for its end.' [End of PMW quote]
The racist writer claimed that there are many more examples of how the PA dreams of Israel's destruction and said that (citing PMW's conclusion - ed.): 'World leaders must finally acknowledge this deeply entrenched, destructive vision that the PA embraces and oppose giving the PA any role in the future of the region.'"
[WAFA, official PA news agency, April 27, 2026]
WAFA did not deny that the PA officials made the statements calling for Israel's disappearance. It called the journalist "racist" for arguing that world leaders should take those statements seriously.
PA officials have previously admitted openly that they are concerned about PMW's monitoring. PA TV Israeli affairs commentator Fayez Abbas whined that PMW watches him all the time:
"An extremist right-wing organization Palestinian Media Watch… [whose director, Itamar Marcus] comes out against me day and night. There is no doubt that he is watching me now, recording me, and preparing reports."
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, March 6, 2024]
(Indeed, we were!!)
The PA's escalating campaign against PMW demonstrates that PMW's work is having an impact. The PA wants international recognition, funding, and a future role in governing Palestinian society while continuing to promote Antisemitism, glorify terrorists, reward murderers, indoctrinate children, and lie to foreign governments.
PMW prevents the PA from presenting one image to the international community while promoting an entirely different message to its own people.
Unable to refute PMW's documentation, the PA has chosen intimidation, name-calling, and accusations of "racism" and "incitement." Every new attack confirms the same reality: PMW's exposures are undermining the PA's attempt to portray itself as a reformed, legitimate, and "peace-loving" entity.
The PA's attacks on PMW are not evidence that PMW's reporting is wrong. They are evidence that it is reaching the people whom the PA most desperately wants to deceive.