Americans Urged to Stop Funding the Palestinians
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Recent reports that the United States is sending financial aid to a Hamas-controlled university raised eyebrows in Washington; but Americans need to know that Hamas is not the only source of hate ideology in the Palestinian Authority, said a group that monitors Palestinian media.
Palestinian Media Watch Director Itamar Marcus told Cybercast News Service it's important for Americans to understand that the Palestinian education system, which spreads an ideology of hatred, begins and ends with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction, which the international community is doing its best to paint as peace-seeking moderates.
PMW published a report at the weekend detailing the funding of different programs at Al Quds University and at the Islamic University of Gaza by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), despite the fact that both institutions host student groups affiliated with terror groups and permit activities that promote and glorify terrorism.
Marcus made waves in Washington last month when he appeared at a joint press conference with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) to present the findings of his most recent survey of Palestinian high school textbooks.
In that presentation, Marcus showed how the Palestinian education system is saturated with rejection of Israel's right to exist and glorification of the violent tactics employed against the Jewish state.
Clinton blasted the deliberate poisoning of the "minds of Palestinian children."
Marcus stressed that Abbas and Fatah are not only inciting Palestinian children, but are instilling in them a deep anti-Israel ideology that cannot be reversed. Unlike incitement, the reversal of a negative ideology requires "serious reeducation and detoxification," he said.
Palestinian schoolbooks are a true representation of Fatah ideology, said Marcus, and until the group changes its ideology and starts educating for peace, "the U.S. shouldn't be funding Fatah" or its leader.
(As Cybercast News Service recently reported, the Bush administration wants to send tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to strengthen Abbas and Fatah in the power struggle with Hamas. The White House confirmed last month that the administration has asked Congress to release $86 million to build and train Abbas' security forces.)
As for USAID, Marcus blasted the agency for ignoring American law by continuing to maintain any kind of relationship with Palestinian institutions engaged in the promotion of terror.
The U.S. State Department lists Hamas as a terrorist organization, and U.S. law bars any recipient of U.S. aid from associating with terrorists.
Nevertheless, on the front page of a local Gaza City newspaper Wednesday morning was a large ad thanking USAID for providing a new power generator for the city, which "has been involved in enormous anti-American and pro-terror activities," Marcus said.
USAID's behavior "is an outrage," said Marcus. "They just go and do what they want."
That kind of disregard for U.S. law is "detrimental to America, it's detrimental to Israel, and in the end it's detrimental to the Palestinians," who are encouraged to continue on their current path, he concluded.
Palestinian Media Watch Director Itamar Marcus told Cybercast News Service it's important for Americans to understand that the Palestinian education system, which spreads an ideology of hatred, begins and ends with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction, which the international community is doing its best to paint as peace-seeking moderates.
PMW published a report at the weekend detailing the funding of different programs at Al Quds University and at the Islamic University of Gaza by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), despite the fact that both institutions host student groups affiliated with terror groups and permit activities that promote and glorify terrorism.
Marcus made waves in Washington last month when he appeared at a joint press conference with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) to present the findings of his most recent survey of Palestinian high school textbooks.
In that presentation, Marcus showed how the Palestinian education system is saturated with rejection of Israel's right to exist and glorification of the violent tactics employed against the Jewish state.
Clinton blasted the deliberate poisoning of the "minds of Palestinian children."
Marcus stressed that Abbas and Fatah are not only inciting Palestinian children, but are instilling in them a deep anti-Israel ideology that cannot be reversed. Unlike incitement, the reversal of a negative ideology requires "serious reeducation and detoxification," he said.
Palestinian schoolbooks are a true representation of Fatah ideology, said Marcus, and until the group changes its ideology and starts educating for peace, "the U.S. shouldn't be funding Fatah" or its leader.
(As Cybercast News Service recently reported, the Bush administration wants to send tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to strengthen Abbas and Fatah in the power struggle with Hamas. The White House confirmed last month that the administration has asked Congress to release $86 million to build and train Abbas' security forces.)
As for USAID, Marcus blasted the agency for ignoring American law by continuing to maintain any kind of relationship with Palestinian institutions engaged in the promotion of terror.
The U.S. State Department lists Hamas as a terrorist organization, and U.S. law bars any recipient of U.S. aid from associating with terrorists.
Nevertheless, on the front page of a local Gaza City newspaper Wednesday morning was a large ad thanking USAID for providing a new power generator for the city, which "has been involved in enormous anti-American and pro-terror activities," Marcus said.
USAID's behavior "is an outrage," said Marcus. "They just go and do what they want."
That kind of disregard for U.S. law is "detrimental to America, it's detrimental to Israel, and in the end it's detrimental to the Palestinians," who are encouraged to continue on their current path, he concluded.