Palestinian Reactions
to the War in Iraq

PA gets $50m from US, then
calls for terror against US soldiers
By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, September 6, 2005

Palestinian Authority hatred of the United States is so deeply ingrained in its ideology that it continues to openly promote vicious anti-American hatred - even right after signing a deal to receive $50 million in direct aid from the US.

Radio and television sermons by senior PA religious officials in the past week have presented the US as foremost among the "heretical" countries, and as an enemy trying to dismantle the Islamic world.

In the presence of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, one religious leader called for Iraqis to intensify terrorist uprisings against American soldiers.

The timing of these anti-US sermons is particularly significant - and not just because they come on the heels of the $50-million grant from the US. The PA has received considerable worldwide criticism for the hatred and calls for violence in its official sermons. In recent months, it has been reported that the texts of these sermons are now presented to PA officials for approval before the public broadcasts.

The following is the report of the recent signing of an agreement for $50 million in US aid to the PA, followed by the two Palestinian Authority sermons of September 2, 2005.

"The [Palestinian] National Authority yesterday signed an agreement with the US Government, to the value of 50 million dollars. According to the agreement, Washington will provide the National Authority with a grant for funding housing and infrastructure projects. On the Palestinian side, Finance Minister Dr. Salam Fayad, signed [the agreement] and for the American side, the US Consul General, Jacob Willis, and the vice manager of the US Agency for International Development, David Harden, signed the agreement".
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, August 25, 2005]

Yusuf Abu Sneina, Imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque

"Anyone who watches closely the nature of our world today, can see that the heretical countries - first and foremost, the USA - have succeeded greatly in tearing our Islamic world apart by disintegrating and splitting up more than one Islamic state, intending to weaken it, disperse [its citizens] and plunder its resources... It is terrorism, and there's no choice but to fight it.

"As regards Iraq, there is much to say about it. The USA has composed a draft of the Iraqi Constitution in a way that it will serve US interests and enhance the disintegration of Iraq's unity. The new constitution includes federal solutions, which are dividing Iraq into small countries...

"A federal government hides behind it; the seeds of a future civil war... The USA is planning to rule Saudi Arabia and disintegrate it, too, despite the close friendly relations between the two countries...

"Is the USA going to fulfill its ambitions and aggressive plans? And, for how long shall the submission and surrender to the plans of the enemies of the [Islamic] nation?"
[Yusuf Abu Sneina, Voice of Palestine, September 2, 2005]

For another example of an officially endorsed Palestinian Authority sermon delivered by Abu Sneina, click here]

Yusuf Jum'a Salamah, PA Minister of the Waqf and Religious Affairs, in the presence of Mahmoud Abbas and other senior PA officials

"We say to the dear, heroic Iraqi nation, turn this incident [the accidental death of 1,000 Iraqis] into an opportunity for resisting [the term regularly used by the PA to describe terrorist attacks] the [American] occupation, for uniting families, for unifying the forces and for opposition to the policy of dismantling Iraq and dividing it geographically."
[Yusuf Jum'a Salamah, Official Friday sermon, PA TV, September 2, 2005]

Birthday Greeting to Saddam Hussein from Fatah Officials
By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, May 3, 2005

An advertisement sending birthday greetings to Saddam Hussein was published yesterday in the official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida.

As Palestinian Media Watch has reported on numerous occasions, Saddam Hussein is seen as a hero by the PA leadership and population. During the war in Iraq, PA political and academic leaders called for armed terror against US soldiers, and a music video calling for Iraqis to kill US troops was played daily on PA TV (See it by clicking here). PA society, media and leadership actively mourned his fall.

The following is the text of the birthday greeting in the PA daily:

Blessings to the leader of the masses, Saddam Hussein the Faithful, the legal President of the Iraqi Republic on the occasion of his 68th birthday.

Two members of the leadership of the Fatah Movement, Bader Tewfik Hassan "Abu Yunis" and Fuzi Kamel Shahrur, express to the leader of the nation and her warrior knight Saddam Hussein President of the Iraqi Republic, best wishes on the occasion of his 68th birthday, and bless all of the faithful among the Iraqi and Arab nations, who support and defend justice. We wish him long life for the sake of Iraq and to free the Arab nation from the enslavement of foreign imperialism." O the glory of victory, with the help of Allah

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 1, 2005]

PA Accusation: US forcing Christianity on Muslims
By Itamar Marcus & Barbara Crook, April 21, 2005

Introduction

Palestinian Authority leaders and the official PA media have long presented America as an enemy of Islam, and the US war on terror as a war against Islam. This promotion continues unabated today, in spite of the American political and financial support of new PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

This week, a religious leader whose salary is paid by the PA added a new accusation to the standard attacks on American policy, by preaching that the US war effort in Iraq and elsewhere, including "Palestine," attempts to force Muslims to convert to Christianity. He said US actions today were crueler than those of a Christian Caesar who, according to Islamic tradition, dipped a Muslim into boiling oil in order to force his conversion to Christianity.

In addition, an old accusation was repeated in an article in the official PA daily this week. The writer stated that the true enemy of the Arabs is not Israel but the US, and that Israel is merely an arm of the US in its imperialist wars. In this article the US is accused of "grinding the bones" of Palestinian children and "devouring their eyes."

It is important to note that the inflammatory sermon comes only a few weeks after the PA leadership announced it would review the Friday sermons to remove incitement and hateful content.

The following are the two items from this week's PA media:

Friday sermon on PA TV

"Our prisoners are subjected to most criminal kinds of physical torture. They are tied with chains and trussed up with iron chains, and hung by their feet from the ceiling, like animals are hung after slaughter for days. Many of them lose consciousness. Our prisoners are exposed to beating, electricity and fire tortures.

"The prisoners are exposed to conversion to Christianity, to abandoning religion, [as it was] in the distant past and recently. Yes, our prisoners are forced to curse Muhammed; our prisoners are forced to curse the religion of Allah, our prisoners are forced to curse the essence of divinity.

"Haven't you heard of our prisoners in Palestine, have you not heard of our prisoners in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and all over the world, who are exploited and imprisoned, and are offered conversion to Christianity?

"This is an old - new infidel policy. Allah's servant, Ibn Al-Hudhafa Al-Sahmi, totally refused this. The [Christian] Caesar told him: 'We shall dip you in boiling oil'. He answered: 'Do as you wish'. He arrived with two Muslims and was dipped in boiling oil until his flesh separated from his bone. But what the Caesar did was not as bad as what his followers do, the missionaries of freedom and democracy of today. In the name of Allah, what Caesar did, dipping Muslims in boiling oil, was one hundred thousand times lighter than what their soldiers are doing today to our wives and daughters in Iraq, in Palestine, in Guantanamo and in Abu Gharib.

"What Caesar did is not as bad as five American soldiers who meet to rape one of our daughters, a girl who has the honor of a Muslim woman, in order to desecrate her honor at the Abu-Gharib prison."
[Ibrahim Mudayris, PA TV, April 15, 2005]

Article from official PA daily newspaper

"Seventeen years (since the assassination of the fighter Abu Jihad), the murderous millstones of America have been turning, grinding the bones of our children and devouring their eyes. Not Israel! There is no such thing called Israel! It is America repeating upon us, the Arabs, the tragedy of the Indians [sic] from the dawn of her [American] history that began with this first crime of genocide."
[Said "Abu Ajima," Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 16, 2005]

PA Press: US Soldier Is Rapist; Rice Is "Exterminator;"
US Committing "Ethnic Cleansing"
By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, November 22, 2004

Introduction

"As the Palestinian media slowly return to their regular routine following Arafat's death, their well-documented hate promotion and incitement are likewise reappearing.

One common theme that has quickly returned due to the war in Iraq is the depiction of the US, verbally and visually, as the cruel and inhuman enemy.

A cartoon in today's official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, shows an American soldier raping a young Arab girl, while the Arab world looks on with amusement and even offers support. The most recent Friday sermon on PA TV depicts the US as the creator of international terror. In a third example, a vicious cartoons depicts US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as the exterminator of Arabs.

The following are the three anti-American items

1. US soldier rapes young girl

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, November 22, 2004]

2. Friday sermon on PA TV, November 19, 2004

"Fallujah is undergoing ethnic cleansing right now: Thousands of shahids [people who die for Allah], hundreds killed every hour... You've seen with your own eyes the terrorism, the terrorism of the United States, who accuses the Palestinian people, the Iraqi people and all Muslims of being terrorists, while creating international terror. The US is the one who creates terror."
[Ibrahim Mudayris, PA TV, November 19, 2004]

3. Condoleezza Rice as "exterminator" of Arab people

Text on spray: "Exterminator"
Text on man: "The Middle East"
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, November 21, 2004]

Palestinian Authority Hatred of America Continues
September 11, 2003

Introduction

In spite of the hundreds of millions of dollars in US aid to the Palestinian Authority, the PA continues to teach that the US is the enemy who is doomed to destruction by Islam, while expressing joy as US deaths mount in Iraq.

Possibly timed to coincide with the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the official PA TV sermon from Gaza attacked the US this week, teaching that the coming fall of the US will be similar to the fall of ancient Rome. The battle with the US is presented as Islam's battle against Rome. The USA, like Rome, will fall according to this sermon.

In addition, a cartoon in the official daily this week showed an American wife and child waving to a US plane as it leaves for Iraq, while crying as a flying coffin returns, draped in the American flag. This mocking of Americans crying over their dead is a continuation of PA policy of support for Iraq before and during the war, while calling for the killing of American and British soldiers.

The text of the sermon follows the cartoon below

Official Sermon on PA TV, September 5, 2003

"If we go back 1,400 years in time, we find that history is repeating itself, worshipers of Allah. The Prophet Mohammed ... was besieged by two powers, Persia in the east and Rome in the west. These represent the Soviet Union and America of today. Persia represents Russia in the east, and America stands for Rome in the west. Persia fell first in the east, just as Russia fell first in the east, and America will fall, may it be Allah's will, just as Rome fell in the west. However [the fall of] Rome necessitated further challenges, closing of ranks and Muslim sacrifices. The battle with Rome, in which its power ceased, necessitated challenges and resistance from the Muslims, just as America today, her allies and proteges, the Zionists and others, necessitate further sacrifices from our side and closing ranks, O Muslims, and we will be victorious ...

"By closing ranks the Prophet succeeded in overcoming Rome, the strongest state, which is equivalent to America today, without the fall of even one Muslim shahid [someone who dies for Allah]... The Prophet succeeded, through Muslim unity and arousing faith, in overcoming the America of then, just as we will defeat America, as long as it supports our enemy, as long as it adheres to its positions against our people, our issue and our holy places, and against our people and its leadership, as long as it adheres to these wicked positions. We will defeat her, may it be the will of Allah. We see America as the number one enemy, as long as it support our enemy. Aren't we killed by American planes? Are our homes not being destroyed by American tanks? Are we not being bombed by American missiles...?"
[Ibrahim Mudayris, PA TV, September 5, 2003]

PA Daily Cartoons: US Octopus Dismembering Saddam, Iraq and "Palestine" are Crucified
July 24, 2003

Introduction

The Palestinian Authority saw Saddam Hussein as one of its closest allies, sided openly with Iraq before and during the war, and has encouraged Iraqis to kill American and British soldiers since.

The official PA media continues to publish anti-American statements and political cartoons. The depiction of the US as a sharp-toothed octopus appeared today in the official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, in response to the killing of Hussein's two sons by American force. [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 24, 2003]

This week the Al-Quds published the cartoon of the crucifixions of Iraq and "Palestine." The PA often uses imagery comparing Palestinians to Jesus. For example, click here.

Text 1: "Brother from Iraq" Text 2: "Relative from Palestine" [Al-Quds, July 22, 2003]

PA Daily: Asian American Marines are Mongols
April 14, 2003

Introduction

Palestinian Media Watch has frequently reported on the use of racism by the Palestinian media.

Now the editor of the official PA daily has ridiculed the race of the US Marine who climbed the statue of Saddam Hussein, calling him, because of his Asian appearance, a 'Mongol,' coming to finish the Mongol invasion of Genghis Khan 700 years ago.

The following are excerpts from the text:

"Have you noticed the face of the marine who climbed Saddam's statue to hang him with a rope pulled by a tank? Concentrate very closely: He has slanted eyes, a flat nose, a smooth and hairless chin, thin lips. His face is round and his cheekbones protrude. He is not a Western American. He is of Chinese origin, or Japanese. He has a connection to Mongol origins.

"This Mongol arrived almost seven hundred years after the Mongol invasion of Baghdad to finish Holako's plan [the Tatar who invaded Baghdad in the 13th century]. He has the same idea as Genghis Khan... The main target of the Mongols was Mecca in order to exterminate the Islamic religion..."
[Hafez Al-Barghouti, Editor, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 10, 2003]

Palestinian Authority Mourns Fall of Baghdad
April 10, 2003

After months of support for Iraq and promises that "Iraq would be a graveyard for US soldiers," the Palestinian Authority went into mourning over the quick fall of their hero Saddam Hussein.

The PA daily Al-Ayyam published today's headline of the fall of Baghdad with a black frame of mourning, while the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida wrote in a political cartoon that the entire Arab Nation is in mourning over Baghdad.

The editorial in the official daily went even further, advising the Iraqi people to act against the American "occupation" by taking "the Palestinian experience as an example."

Headline: "April 9 2003 - Fall of Baghdad"

Text on Flag: "Baghdad" Text on Mourner: "Arab Nation"

New PA Music Video: "Be Strong Baghdad"
April 8, 2003

A new Palestinian Authority music video being broadcast repeatedly during the last few days on official Palestinian television glorifies the "heroic" fighting of the Iraqis and celebrates the casualties inflicted on the US forces. Pictured twice are scenes of US soldiers carrying away a body of a killed comrade, and the last picture in the video is a coffin draped with American and British flags.

The following refrain is sung repeatedly:

Be strong, Baghdad, be strong
Pressure the evil ones
Don't fear bombings and siege
Pull the trigger
The despicable ones must go

The video shows numerous scenes of cheering Iraqis holding their automatic rifles aloft and includes Iraqis celebrating near a downed US helicopter.

The vocalist is the popular Palestinian singer Jamal Al-Najar.

Whereas around the world music videos are used for entertainment, MTV-type music videos are used by the Palestinian Authority as a primary tool in its hate indoctrination apparatus.

US soldiers carry dead body [PA TV, April 6-8, 2003]	USA and British flags draped on coffin [PA TV April 6-8, 2003]

This clip can be seen online by clicking here

Palestinians Name Square for Killer of Four US Soldiers
April 3, 2003

Introduction

Celebrating the killing of four American soldiers by an Iraqi suicide bomber, Palestinian Authority officials have named the center of the Jenin Refugee Camp after that suicide bomber, Ali Al-Na'amani.

In addition to the moral issue, it should be remembered that Palestinian refugee camps are UN property and funded by the UN, so that all expenses involved in the name change may be from the UN budget. Likewise, Palestinian Media Watch recommends an investigation into the extent that salaried UN officials are involved in agreeing to such name changes and implementation.

The following is the announcement in the PA newspaper:

"The officials, the institutions and the National Islamic Forces in the Jenin Refugee Camp ... decided to continue the blood donor campaign for Iraq and decided to name the center of the refugee camp 'Ali Al-Na'amani' after the shahid [someone who for Allah] who was the first suicide bomber in Iraq..."
[Al-Quds, April 2, 2003]

Palestinian Children Learn to Hate America:
Bush tried and convicted of 'crimes against humanity' in Palestinian youth court
March 6, 2003

Introduction

Palestinian indoctrination to hate the USA and the West is also focusing on the next generation, as a youth court in Gaza has tried US President George W. Bush and found him guilty of "crimes against humanity"

The following picture of the youth trial was published in today's Al-Quds:

'President Bush' is seen in the defendants' cage to the right, guarded by two 'soldiers.' The caption under the picture reads,

"Children acting as judges while another child wears a mask of President George Bush Jr. [sic]. The judges found the American president guilty of crimes against humanity."

The sign under the 'judges:'

"High Court of the Palestinian Youth Parliament for the Trial of War Criminals"

Palestinian Authority: Iraq is "Brother,"
Bush is "Rambo," US is Arab-Devouring Alligator
March 3, 2003

The Palestinians continue their unabated verbal attacks on the United States in their media. The Palestinian Authority's Palestine Media Center quoted Arafat describing the impending US attack on Iraq as a "war on brotherly Iraq." Today's Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the official PA daily, had two political cartoons - one defining Bush as "Rambo" going out on an attack, and the second as the US as an alligator, devouring an unsuspecting Arab world.