Skip to main content

PMW director shows that Palestinian hate speech makes peace impossible

Debra Rubin  |

Media ‘watchdog’ says PA sows hatred

by Debra Rubin

 
The Palestinian Authority and its president may tell the world they are partners for peace, but to their citizens they are ‎sowing such hatred of Jews and Israel that peace is unattainable, according to the founder and director of an Israeli ‎watchdog organization that monitors the Palestinian media‏. ‏

Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch said the PA is poisoning the minds of its population through videos, ‎cartoons, and even crossword puzzles‏.‏

‏“‏We know what they’re saying in English to the media and negotiators, but we wanted to know what they were ‎saying in Arabic, particularly what they’re saying to kids, because that will affect generations to come,” said ‎Marcus‏.‏

The American-born Marcus, who founded his organization in 1996, spoke Nov. 12 at Congregation B’nai Tikvah in ‎North Brunswick in a program cosponsored by StandWithUs, a pro-Israel education and advocacy organization‏.‏

Itamar noted that a senior PA official denounced a “bridge-building” soccer tournament held Sept. 1 along the Gaza ‎border between Palestinian and Israeli children. “Any activity of normalization in sports with the Zionist enemy is a ‎crime against humanity,” Jibril Rajoub said on the PA’s Facebook page‏.‏

Marcus said during recent clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians over the Temple Mount, Palestinian ‎TV ran a promo 19 times between Oct. 17 and 19 calling for violence in Jerusalem to prevent Jews “in any way ‎whatsoever” from going to the Temple Mount.‎

Another Fatah Facebook post showed three mice strung up on a fishing rod with Stars of David on their heads. ‎Marcus said the illustration represented the three Israeli teenage boys kidnapped and killed in June‏.‏

A Palestinian Center for Public Opinion poll found that 57 percent approved of the kidnapping while 54 percent ‎supported killing the teens‏.‏

“‏Where does this come from?” Marcus asked. “The Palestinian Authority created an environment where killing ‎Jews is seen as positive. When they hear and read that Israel poisoned their water and was doing medical ‎experiments on Palestinian prisoners, that is why we get 54 percent who think killing Jews is a defense‏.‏‎”‎

‎(Marcus spoke a week before two Palestinian residents of Jerusalem killed five Israelis in a Jerusalem synagogue.)‎

When Palestinian TV refers to Israeli cities such as Ashkelon, Safed, and Haifa as “Palestine,” “they are clearly ‎creating a culture” where Israel has no place, said Marcus, and recognition of the Jewish state is a principal ‎component of the peace process‏.‏

Marcus claimed that PA President Mahmoud Abbas is the “driving force” behind much of the incitement, ‎because he is jostling to maintain a leadership position in any potential Fatah-Hamas unity government‏, ‏

‏“‏The gap between Hamas and Fatah is disappearing, but it’s not Hamas moving closer to Fatah, but rather Fatah ‎moving closer to Hamas,” said Marcus‏.‏
‎[http://njjewishnews.com/article/25407/media-watchdog-says-pa-sows-hatred#.VH7NODGUeSp]‎

RelatedView all ❯