PA TV: “[Arab] students at Hebrew University have reclaimed occupied territories in Jerusalem"

Official PA TV:

"[Arab] students at Hebrew University

have reclaimed occupied territories in Jerusalem"

"The amphitheater is ours"

[Official PA TV, May 23, 2014]

Arab student at Hebrew U. [in 2011]:

"The Watan ("Homeland") movement was founded...

within the walls of Hebrew University,

within the walls of an Israeli institution,

and has proven the theory of the 'cultural Trojan horse'"

[Official PA TV, Nov. 25, 2011]

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Hebrew University in Jerusalem is on Mount Scopus, which has been part of the State of Israel since the armistice agreement with Jordan in 1949. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA routinely presents all of Israel as "occupied Palestine."

PA TV reported that the Arab participants chanted "the slogan: 'The amphitheater is ours.'" The PA TV reporter added that "in fact it [the amphitheater] was theirs. They restored the Arab character of the land on which Hebrew University was built, even if only for one day."

The PA TV journalist ended her report with the words:

"Christine Rinawi, from Hebrew University in occupied Jerusalem."

In 2011, a member of the same Watan (Homeland) Arab student movement at Hebrew University called the Arab student organization a "cultural Trojan horse":

"The Watan movement was founded five years ago within the walls of Hebrew University, within the walls of an Israeli institution, and has proven the theory of the 'cultural Trojan horse.' It has proven that it can establish Palestinian identity within Israeli institutions." [Official PA TV, Nov. 25, 2011]

Later that year, at a demonstration organized by the Watan movement against an Israeli "Prawer Plan" for resettling several Bedouin communities in the Negev Desert, the same student also denied Israel's existence, referring to the Negev, Nazareth and "the north" as "Palestine":

"We and our people in the Negev [are] one... We need to make our voice heard on all levels, across the world, here at the University, in the Negev and in Nazareth, in the north, everywhere in Palestine, in order to emphasize that we are one arm, and that Palestine is one." [Official PA TV, Dec. 12, 2011]   

The following are longer excerpts of the reports:

Official PA TV News reported on the Arab Heritage Festival at Hebrew University in Jerusalem

Official PA TV reporter: "The Palestinian flag [flying] at the head of the scouts [parade] opened the festival, which was held at the [Hebrew] University's main amphitheater for the first time - the very amphitheater at which the first British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel and [Lord President of the British Council Arthur James] Balfour, announced the founding of Hebrew University in 1925, 89 years ago. Today, the [Arab] students at Hebrew University have reclaimed occupied territories in Jerusalem. Songs dedicated to the prisoners and the Martyrs (Shahids) were sung by the singer Rim Banna from Nazareth... [The participants chanted] the slogan, 'The amphitheater is ours,' and in fact, it was theirs. They restored the Arab character of the land on which Hebrew University was built, even if only for one day, without weapons, but through their own tradition and by raising the flag of their Palestinian identity. Christine Rinawi, from Hebrew University in occupied Jerusalem."

[Official PA TV, May 23, 2014]