PATV: Israel conspired to burn
Al-Aqsa Mosque, Golda Meir "laughed"

By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

Introduction:
The Palestinian Authority (PA) regularly invents and disseminates distorted versions of history that present Israelis as villains and Palestinians as victims. One of the most prominent examples, which receives great attention every year and has been featured on PATV this week, rewrites history by blaming Israel for a 1969 arson attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

On Aug. 21, 1969, a non-Jewish Australian named Michael Rohan set fire to the podium of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Israel arrested and tried the mentally deranged arsonist.

For years, the PA has been portraying this as a Zionist attack on the mosque. This week, a special program dedicated to the issue described the incident as a premeditated attack by the Israeli government. According to this broadcast, Israel conspired with the arsonist, then deliberately allowed the fire to spread by delaying the arrival of fire engines and cutting off water to the site.

The PA version of events -- this week and in previous years -- also states that then-Prime Minister Golda Meir referred to the fire as both the "hardest" and "happiest" day of Israel's history: the hardest because she feared the incident would lead to an attack by neighboring Arab countries, and the happiest because such an attack never occurred. One account from 2001 even claimed that Meir "laughed" when there was no attack.

The following are excerpts from this week's broadcasts and one from last year, demonstrating the systematic repetition of the libel:

Taissir Rajab Al-Tamimi, the Chief of Judges, and the chairman of the Islamic law high council in the Palestinian Authority: "The Israeli government conspired and formed an alliance with this criminal -- who came from Australia, and is a Jew -- for the burning of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. On August 21st, 1968, a year before the burning of the Mosque, he came to the Mosque and tried to burn it. He inserted the [flammable] substances to burn the Mosque, but the guards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque prevented it. The Israeli government expelled him to Australia."

Dr. Hassan Khater, founder of the Al-Quds encyclopedia: "This happened in '68?"

Taissir Tamimi: "In '68. A year later on the same date, on August 21st, 1969, this criminal arrived and set fire to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. This is why we claim that the Israeli government is the planner and executer. The area burned by the fire, which included a large portion of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, confirms that the one who committed this catastrophic action is not [Australian] Michael Rohan, as claimed, but a number of people . . . There is a lot of evidence pointing to the fact that Israel is the one that planned the burning, [including] the delay of the fire engines to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. If it were not [for the delay] of the fire engines from Hebron, Ramallah, Nablus, and other cities in the West Bank, the fire would not have spread to the whole mosque. . . One piece of evidence that clarifies that the Israeli government participated in the event is that it shut down the water to the Al-Aqsa Mosque."
[PATV special broadcast, Aug. 23, 2004]

Ibrahim Mudayris, a PA religious leader: "About 35 years ago the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque was set to burn by an oppressing Zionist terrorist."
[PATV Friday sermon, Aug. 20, 2004]

Mudayris: "On this day the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque was subjected to the cursed fire by the treachery of the Zionist oppressors . . . On August 21st, 1969, it was set afire by a Zionist gang.
[PATV Friday sermon, Aug. 15, 2003]

The following are fictitious accounts, from this week's broadcast and from previous years, of Golda Meir's reaction to the burning of the mosque:

Taissir Tamimi: "When the Al-Aqsa Mosque burned on August 21st, 1969, Golda Meir, the Israeli Prime Minister at the time, said that the hardest day that the Zionist Entity ever had was the day of the burning of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and that was also the happiest day. How is this? She assumed that the Islamic Nation would move the armies and they would all come to Israel... but in the evening the Nation turned to the Security Council . . . " [PATV special broadcast, Aug. 23, 2004]

Ibrahim Mudayris:"When the accursed Golda Meir was asked what were the hardest days of her life, she answered, 'The day the Al-Aqsa mosque was burned.' And when asked for the happiest day of her life, she answered, 'The day the Al-Aqsa mosque was burned.' They asked her, 'How can this be?' She said, 'The day the Al-Aqsa mosque was burnt I thought that [we have come to the] last day of the state of Israel, but when I saw the Muslim responses, I understood that Israel is safe in the region of the Arab world.'" [PATV Friday sermon, Aug. 20, 2004]

Mudayris: When the Mosque burned, an old woman was prime minister of the Zionist Entity. Her name was Golda Meir. She controlled the Zionist Entity, and when she heard that a gang of Zionists dared to burn the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, she clapped her hands [in sorrow] and mourned the [bad luck] of Israel, for she assumed that the Muslims and Arabs would hurry instantly to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the hands of the Zionist Entity." [PATV Friday sermon, Aug. 15, 2003]

Dr. Ismail Radwan, lecturer at the Islamic University of Gaza: "The incident of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the burning of the Sallh [Al-Din] podium remind us of what Golda Meir did, Allah's curse be upon her, when she cried on the first day of the burning of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and laughed on the next. When asked about it she said,'I cried on the first day fearing that the Muslims will act, in fear of a worldwide Muslim action for Al-Aqsa. But when the Muslims did not act, and all I heard the next day were calls of condemnation, I laughed about it.'" [PATV Friday sermon, Aug. 17, 2001]

PA uses Holocaust victim image to portray Palestinian "refugees" as "victims" of Israel

By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook ,Aug. 18, 2004

Authentic Holocaust photo	Staged PATV image

Introduction:
In a vulgar distortion of history, the PA media often compare the Palestinian situation to the suffering of the Jews in the Holocaust. The PA's latest propaganda film about "refugees" draws on a well-known image from Holocaust history -- dead Jews hanging over barbed wire -- and restages it with false images of Palestinians hanging from barbed wire [see pictures above].

These shocking visual images are combined with numerous messages of political indoctrination, geared particularly towards youth. First and foremost is the denial of Israel's right to exist. The essence of the program is that all of Israel is occupied "Palestine," stolen from the "refugees," and that the "refugees" have never forgotten and will "return." A young child talks of his "return," saying that although he is the fourth generation, he has not forgotten his roots in the land, and will return by his "blood." The recurring theme is, "We will surely return."

This program has been broadcast four times in recent months. [PATV four times, May-August 2004]

Background: History of the "refugee" issue as a political tool

During Israel's War of Independence, hundreds of thousands of Arabs left for neighboring Arab countries. Most left after encouragement from Arab leaders, who thought it would help the war effort.

[Click here to see documentation of this from PMW video archives.]

Most of the Arabs ended up in UN refugee camps. To this day, the hosting Arab countries have used various laws, including those prohibiting land and business ownership, to prevent the original refugees and their descendants from becoming permanent citizens. These laws, and the desire to use the issue of "refugee suffering" as a political tool against Israel, have in fact caused the continued suffering for the camp residents and their descendants.

Palestinian Authority (PA) propaganda accuses Israel of expelling all the "refugees," and blames Israel for their continued suffering. Instead of calling for solutions to the problems in the countries in which these people were born and reside, the PA demands that Israel absorb the remaining original refugees and millions of their descendants.

Excerpts from the new film on PATV:

Click here to see 2 minutes of the broadcast.

The following are text excerpts from the program:

"On this planet there is a land called Palestine [image on screen of map of Israel]. From this land a nation was uprooted, named the nation of Palestine, which gave the earth its green color and built houses from its clay, and created the homeland and the memory. But the force of oppression [pictures of Israeli leaders Dayan and Sharon] was still dividing the world by its whim and setting it aflame whenever it chose. Thus, it was the cursed promise, the Balfour promise, which promised a homeland with a nation to others without a homeland. The occupation and the expulsion occurred, yet a fate unknown, until a time unknown. This is the story of the refugees....."

The poet, Iz A-Din Manasra:
"The state of Israel was founded on the basis of massacre and expulsion; in other words, the transfer. Since the year of '48 and later in '67 -- now they weave plans for the transfer. This Israeli mentality is based on the principle of massacre and expulsion."

Abla Abu-Abla, Director of refugee studies, Jordan:
"Many of the Palestinian families still keep the keys to their homes. This is the key to our home in Jaffa, this is the key to our home in Haifa, this is the key to our home in Acre. Ask any boy you wish, which city are you from? Whoever you wish, ask any boy in any city -- he will answer you, Acre, Haifa -- in other words, he belongs temporarily to the place where he lives, the place in which he is a refugee, but he belongs in his inner knowledge, in his source and roots to the place he was expelled from."

Headline:
"There is no escaping the fact that one day we shall return"

Ahmad Yussuf:
"The right of return is a right that is not negotiable, in addition to it being a collective and personal right. No one is allowed to surrender it, no matter if he is in a political leadership position nor if he is a member of our Palestinian nation."

Singer:
"If you expel us, or imprison us with borders, one day we will surely return. [Image of UN resolution 194, the 'right' of return, being shot down by soldier]. One day we will surely return. If you imprison us with borders, one day we will surely return. We shall never forget. One day we will surely return. One day we will surely return. The youth do not know Haifa, Jaffa, Acre, the Galilee, the [Galilee] Triangle, and the Negev. They believe that the Palestinian is born with the right of return together with mother's milk."

Boy:
"Once I read a book, written by an Israeli. He wrote: 'The first generation [of refugees] is dying, the second is dying, the third is weakening, the fourth is forgetting.' I want to tell him, I am a fourth generation, and I have not forgotten. I have a dream to reach Dier Yassin [West Jerusalem]. Though it is my dream, I can achieve it with my blood, only to return to Dier Yassin. One day we will surely return."

PA Historians:

Israel's Biblical History is Actually Arab Muslim History

by Itamar Marcus, August 8, 2004

Introduction
On an educational program on PA TV, two senior Palestinian Authority [PA] historians went to great lengths to deny ancient Jewish history and erase the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel. At the same time they describe an ancient Palestinian - Arab history, creating a historical connection to the land that never existed.

Two central components of this Palestinian myth consist of turning Biblical Israel into Muslim- Arabs, while teaching that the Palestinians are the descendents of the Biblical Canaanites, who are also turned into Arabs. With both the Canaanites and Israelites becoming Arabs and the religion of ancient Israel becoming Islam, the PA takes authentic Jewish history, documented by thousands of years of continuous literature, and crosses out the word "Jewish” and replaced it with the word "Arab".

This creative historical revisionism is not new in the PA. Denying the thousands of years of Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, coupled with the invention of "Palestinian" history of thousands of years, have always been of supreme importance to the Palestinian Authority. The PA is struggling with the challenge of creating a Palestinian national identity when no Palestinian national history exists. Even the term "Palestine" historically had nothing to do with Arab identity, and most of the population only migrated in the last century after the improved living conditions and work opportunities brought about by the Zionist movement.

Thus, incessant denial of Israel's history and right to exist, and the invention of a PA history have been backbones of PA indoctrination and education for years.

1. The Hebrews of the Bible have no connection to the Jews today.
2. The Hebrews of the Bible were Arabs.
3. The Prophets of the Bible were Muslims.
4. Biblical King Solomon was a Muslim Prophet.
5. Solomon’s Temple was not built by Israelites but by Arab Canaanites.
6. The Canaanites are the forefathers of the Palestinians
7. The Bible is legends based on what Jews imagined and not on history.
8. The Jews today are descendents of a 13 th Century Khazar tribe with no history in the Land of israel.
9. The location of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is a Zionist invention.
10. Zionism is Racism.

• Dr. Jarir Al-Qidwah, Head of the PA Public Library and Arafat's Advisor on Education
• Dr. Issam Sissalem, Senior Historian and Educational TV host, former head of History Dept. of PA University

Albaz: "Where did the story of Solomon’s Temple come from?"

Al-Qidwa: "Solomon’s Temple, I believe, was built by the Canaanites who were the neighbors of the Israelis, the Israelites... I want to state several words clearly: the Bible became an archival document, not representing what the Israelis and the first Jews were, but what they thought they were, what they imagined. The Temple is the fruit of their imagination. In any case, when our nation or our Canaanite forefathers came to Palestine, they built the Temple… a temple in Jerusalem"

Sissalem: "We, as the Palestinian nation fighting for its freedom and liberation, must not focus to much attention on these false [Biblical] legends. The history of our land continues more than ten thousand years. The land of battles and wars, [many] armies, tribes and commanders came through. I want to point out that we should not focus much on what is called the [Biblical] Hebrew tribes, who are in fact Bedouin – Arab tribes. There is no connection between them and these Khazar Jews [of Israel today]. Those [Hebrew - Arab] tribes were erased and ceased to exist and no traces were left of them… That group did not have a pure religion. They claimed that Solomon, may he rest in peace, built the Temple. Does the land testify to this? Solomon was a prophet and we see him as a Muslim and part of our [Islamic] heritage… There is no historical text that proves the existence [of the temple] or that it has a real history other than the Bible, and the Bible as we have previously mentioned… was written based on ancient legends."

Rewriting History:

Poetry Video Says Israel has been Palestinian Homeland for "a Million Years"
By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, July 30, 2004

Introduction
Denying Israel's right to exist by claiming the Jews have no historical roots in Israel is a backbone of Palestinian Authority (PA) cultural education, as is the attempt to reinforce Palestinian claims to the land by creating an ancient Palestinian history in Israel.

A new poetry video called You and Us, broadcast on PA TV almost every day in recent weeks, uses both tactics.

As shots of Israelis appear on the screen, an announcer's grave voice reads the poem's opening line: "You are phantoms in my land." The juxtaposition of text and visuals also portrays Israelis as "conquerors." The text of the poem states that the land has been Palestinian homeland for "a million years," since "the dawn of man's creation," and that no one occupied the land before the Palestinians' arrival. Scenes of Yasser Arafat accompany the repeated phrase, "This is the beginning," and the poem's final line refers to "revolution" as the PA flag appears on the screen.

The following is the text of the poem, with a description of the accompanying visuals:

"You are phantoms on my land [visuals of Israelis]
And our roots in her are deep [scenes of land]
For a million years it is our homeland
May the conquerors exploit as they will [war scenes]
We came - the dawn of man's creation in the world
And our arrival - the beginning and time

Before us no foot had strode through her [scenes of land]
And calls were not heard
Ours are the caves of her mountains
Ours are her rivers
Ours are her plants, vineyards, the fields
And a waterway there is, faced with fields
And the bones of our fathers that lived on the ground
And under it they died...
This is the beginning [scenes of Yasser Arafat]
This is the beginning
And every beginning is followed by an end [scenes of Al-Aqsa Mosque]

The days are long [war scenes]
The days have always been long
And the course of history - revolution [PA flag flying] ."

PA Libel:PA Blames Israel
for Palestinian murder
By Itamar Marcus, July 25, 2004

Introduction
The NY Times reported yesterday that a 16 year-old Palestinian boy was murdered by members of the Palestinian terror organization, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, when his family tried to stop the launching of a missile towards Israel from their yard. The official Palestinian Authority (PA) daily reported his killing as an act of the Israeli army "when an Israeli tank opened fire from its machine guns".

PMW has repeatedly documented the Palestinian Authority policy of distorting news and blaming Israel for events including killings that were internal Palestinian conflicts. This is an additional example among many.

The following are the accounts as reported in the NY Times and the distortion in the PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida:

NY Times Report:

Militants Force Palestinian Family
Into an Agonizing Choice
By Joseph Berger, July 24, 2004

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/24/international/middleeast/24mide.html

“On Friday, four members of Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, an armed branch of Yasir Arafat's Fatah movement, returned to [Beit Hanun] to try to set up a launcher in front of the [Zanin] family's house. The family protested, said Amna al-Zanin, a member of the family. The militants drew weapons. Three shot into the air, but a fourth fired directly at the family, wounding Ms. Zanin and hitting her 15-year-old nephew, Hassan al-Zanin. He died later at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City; doctors said the bullet had penetrated his heart.

"Even if we ask them not to fire from our land, that doesn't give them permission to shoot at us," Ms. Zanin said in a telephone interview from her bed at Alawdah Hospital in Jabaliya. "It's very painful that a Palestinian bullet was directed toward a Palestinian chest." Her 18-year-old nephew was hit in an ear, and her 20-year-old nephew was struck in the hand.

Palestinian Authority Report:

“Yesterday morning the 15 year old boy – Hassan Jamil Al-Zanin - became a Shahid (Martyr) and three other residents were moderately injured... when an Israeli tank opened fire from its machine guns at a group of residents that were at the entrance to the Beit Hanun town in north Gaza. Palestinian security sources noted that the Israeli tank fired at the residents’ homes... and led to the boy becoming a Shahid (Martyr) ... Eye witnesses from the town said that the boy Al-Zanin became a Shahid when an Israeli tank opened fire at a group of residents while a group of the resistance [fighters] were hiding bombs in the path of Israeli tanks in the area. Residents explained that a dispute broke out between some of the armed men and people from the Al-Zanin family and as a result of the dispute near their house the occupation fired heavily, which led to the boy’s becoming a Shahid.”
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July, 24, 2004]

The PA media on the internal PA crisis
By Itamar Marcus & Barbara Crook, July 22, 2004

“What is needed is a bloodless overthrow, which Yasser Arafat will execute against Arafat Yasser, if he wants to avoid a bloody overthrow by others…”

These words would be striking coming from anyone in the severely controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) media. The fact that they come from Hafez Al-Barghuthi, the editor of the official PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida, is one of the clear signs of the loss of the universal control that Yasser Arafat had enjoyed in the past. Certainly, challenging Arafat is still dangerous, as in the case of former Minster Nebil Amro, who was shot this week just hours after publicly criticizing Arafat. Still, the fact that he and others are openly criticizing Arafat demonstrates a loss of the former uniform control.

Dominating the print media this week are opinion articles openly critical of the PA leadership and the corruption, though most do not specify Arafat by name. However, these are not indicative of a universal media revolt. Many articles supportive of Arafat continue to be published. Some depict the crisis as an Israeli media creation, others blame Israel for the problems, while others blame different forces in the PA for corruption.

PA TV, moreover, seems to remain firmly in Arafat’s control, as it repeatedly broadcasts various “Hail Arafat” style musical video clips alongside news items describing the crisis as another news item among many. In addition, the PA Journalists' Union called yesterday for journalists to stop negative press coverage and publish only stories that strengthen "national unity."

But coming from a media and a society where in the past it was not possible to openly criticize Arafat, these challenges to his position and to PA rule are a sign of significant turmoil.

The following are examples of these themes appearing in the PA media:

1. Criticism of the PA and calls for Arafat to resign;
2. Decision of Palestinian Journalists' Association to stop negative press coverage;
3. PA TV and musical videos supporting Arafat;
4. Blaming Israel for the crisis;
5. Blaming Israeli media for creating a fictitious crisis.

1. Criticism of the PA and calls for Arafat to resign

“We have no need for [merely] a symbolic formal government that cannot enforce any decision. Nor do we need [merely] a symbolic president, like others want him [to be]. We want [him to be] a strong president supported by the people as he is, and a strong government that will restore the Palestinian national project that has started to be consumed and shrunk through the treaty between the corrupt and the nouveau riche and the new possessors of power...
What is needed is a bloodless overthrow which Yasser Arafat will impose against Arafat Yasser, if he wants to avoid a bloody coup by others – and they are many everywhere. Without an overthrow we will stay rabid [play on words, “Inqilab”/“Inkilab” ‘overthrow’/‘rabid’ are similar]. " [Hafez Al-Barghuthi, editor, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July, 18, 2004]

“When the leadership stops fulfilling its job as leadership, even though it is capable of it, and when the authority ceases from fulfilling its job… it is not surprising what is happening in Gaza.” [Al-Ayyam, July, 20, 2004]

“…The issue can be summarized [in] that the [Palestinian] Authority cannot rule any more and that the people do not trust the Authority in anything that has to do with governing... The situation necessitates a process of change and rehabilitation of the political system… Otherwise the future will be more dangerous then anything we’ve known.”
[Al-Ayyam, June, 19, 2004]

“Regarding President Arafat, Abu Alaa said: “President Abu Amar (Arafat) no one disagrees about his [leadership]… but there may be disagreement with him… Oh brother Abu Amar (Arafat) ! The time has come to work all our structures on correct and right principles, and the time has come to place the right man in the proper place.” [Al-Ayyam, July, 20, 2004]

“…What is happening in Gaza and all that will occur in the future in the West Bank… are a result of one more important factor, which is the objection to reform and changes and leaving the corrupt… in the main leadership positions… The talks about corruption in the Palestinian arena have reached a level that must be followed by an explosion… Everything happening in Gaza is only the beginning and is like a mountain peak waiting to collapse everywhere, as long as the clear-minded… do not stop the deterioration though implementing reforms at once and bringing the corrupt to trial without hesitation, today and not tomorrow. In the moments before the big explosion things are timed in minutes and not in hours and days.”
[Al-Ayyam, July, 19, 2004]

“The National and Islamic forces strongly condemned the attack on the French Delegation... The announcement held the Authority and its branches - the executive, legislative, and judicial - fully responsible for this behavior and these actions that harm the Palestinian nation and its struggle.” [Al-Ayyam, July, 18, 2004]

“Democratization of the Fatah Organization will be the first step towards the democratization of the Authority… Without that, our situation will continue to stay as it is: Corruption and the internal defects in all fields will stay as they are…” [Al-Ayyam, July, 18, 2004]

“The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade announced their opposition to the decision to appoint Brigadier Genera Musa Arafat [Yasser Arafat’s relative] as commander of the General Security [Forces] in the Gaza Strip, warning that this appointment will cause a civil war.”
[Al-Ayyam, July, 18, 2004]

2. Decision of Palestinian Journalists' Association to stop negative press coverage

"[At a meeting of the Palestinian Journalists'Association] several recommendation were adopted... All the relevant sides must work at once to bring to an end the all the irregularities and acts of violence... The Association forbade all journalists and writers for foreign Arab news agencies and satellite channels to deal… with any type of announcements and manifests, which deal with the internal events and include language that question the integrity of others, condemns them and hurts them. The Association emphasized that it will impose deterring penalties on any journalists violating this...
The Association emphasized, also, the prohibition to cover armed marches... or photographing them... The Association emphasized in its announcement that there should be... coverage of activities that call only for strengthening of the national unity and protection of internal front.” [Al-Ayyam, July 21, 2004]

3. PA TV and musical videos supporting Arafat:

PA TV rebroadcast a program with the following declaration from a child:

“I want to address [our] father-commander (Arafat) and tell him: ‘We are with him, oh commander of the revolution and commander of the journey. We are here with you, and no one will prevent us from standing by your side. You are the commander of the revolution and [you] will stay the commander of the revolution … You will establish the capital Jerusalem for your free country Palestine, with the help of Allah. We are with you, oh commander of the rebellion, oh our great father." [PATV July, 19, 2004]

PA TV music-video supporting Arafat: "Stand Strong"
(Sung to scenes of Arafat in leadership, military and fatherly roles)

“Stand strong, oh dear man, Abu Amar (Arafat)
We are with you, you direct the call
Your head held high, Abu Amar (Arafat)
... the (Israeli) siege need not worry you

“(We are) returning – Oh land of glory
Mountains that are not shaken by wind
Abu Amar (Arafat) announced:
“Oh mountain, the wind will not shake you”
Abu Amar, the siege should not worry you

With stones and the sound of gun powder
and with determination Jerusalem will return
Abu Amar (Arafat) said.
Faras Ouda [14-year-old who planned his own Martyr’s death) [is] her hero
Abu Amar, the siege should not worry you.”

4. Blaming Israel for the Crisis

“Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei met yesterday with the special committee of the legislative council for monitoring the security and political situation in the Gaza Strip… The Prime Minister’s words focused on anarchy and chaos in security, especially in the Gaza Strip. He emphasized the responsibility of the Israeli occupation that reoccupied the PA territories and destroyed its governmental and security institutions…” [Al-Ayyam, July, 18, 2004]

“What happened in Gaza was only a question of time and no more, because of the lack of responsiveness of the PA and the political decision makers to handle the internal Palestinian situation, which for the last three years faces grave dangers, foremost among them the weakening of the people’s ability to stand firm facing the Israeli annihilation plan on one side; and second, it [the situation] hinders the ability of the Palestinian nation to stand firm facing the difficulties and crimes of the Israeli government.” [PA TV July 18, 2004]

5. Blaming Israeli media for creating a fictitious crises

“During recent days the Israeli propaganda apparatus has been working intensively creating news and information, and creating a picture of security anarchy in the Gaza Strip, which the [Palestinian] National Authority cannot control nor restrain. The Israeli journalists followed this line of propaganda to come out with strange analyses and false conclusions that warn of the collapse of the [Palestinian] National Authority.
We know that these propaganda mines are a result of an official Israeli plan to extricate [Israel from] the crisis of the verdict of the ‘International Court” in the Hague, and to shift the [world] attention away from its [the verdict's] claims, conclusions, and from following developments. We do not blame all the Israeli journalists for this plot, but the majority of them, without doubt, participated [in the use] of this fictitious information, and did not inspect or check the lack of transparency and credibility of the information...”
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July, 21, 2004]

Arafat Blames Israel for Tel Aviv Bombing
By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, July 12, 2004

Introduction
The Palestinian Authority (PA) as policy attempts to portray itself as victim - even when those killed are Israelis and even when it bears full responsibility. This pattern repeated yesterday as a bomb in Tel Aviv killed a 19-year old Israeli woman soldier and wounded 34. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the terror arm of the Arafat's Fatah, took responsibility for the bombing. The connection between the PA and the Al Aqsa wing is openly acknowledged as PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei recently stressed: "The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, military wing of the Fateh movement will not be dissolved and Fateh will never relinquish its military wing." [PA official PA website, June 21, 2004]

Two aspects of the Palestinian Authority's statements following the attack are noteworthy:

1. When Arafat and Prime Minister Qurei condemned the bombing, a routine expected by the world media and international community, it was explained not in terms of human loss to Israel but political loss to the Palestinians:

"President Arafat and Prime Minister Qurei repeated their total opposition to actions targeting civilians on both sides. Explosion actions that target civilians are counter to the lofty interests of our nation, hurt the legality of its legitimate struggle against the occupation, and cause damage to its image..." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July, 12, 2004]

2. Moreover, Arafat argued that since Israel was the one benefiting politically from the bombing it was likely that Israel was behind it:

Thus according to the PA, though it was the PA terror wing that planted the bomb and an Israeli who was killed - they are the political victims of Israeli scheming.

Refugee organization oppose voting right to refugees for political purposes
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

Introduction
A Palestinian Authority refugee organization announced its opposition to granting occupancy of refugee camps the right to vote in the upcoming local elections.
 
Since Israel’s creation the Arab world has actively prevented a humanitarian solution for Arab refugees who left Israel during Israel’s War of Independence. For example, Lebanon still prohibits camp residents from owning homes or businesses outside the camps, condemning them to perpetual economic and social hardship.
 
According to the PA leadership this denial of the right to vote should be done to highlight the “unique status” of the refugee camps.
 
The following statement in the PA daily by the Supreme National Committee for the Protection of the Right of Return also reiterates the PA policy of preventing the integration of the refugee camps into urban housing units, calling it a "danger".

“The Supreme National Committee for the Protection of the Right of Return – announced yesterday that it opposes the participation of the refugee camps in the local elections that are expected to take place in the Palestinian territories. The committee justified its objection as protecting the unique status of the refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank, considering them testimony to the crime that the occupation state made against our nation for 56 years. The committee warned of the dangers of integrating the refugee camps into the urban housing units...” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 29, 2004]

Four Loopholes in US
Anti-Terror Laws

Flaws in US law enable recipients to support anti-American activities and promote terror

by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
Executive Summary

The Study:

An integral component of the United States’ war on international terrorism is to cut off funding to terrorists and their supporters. This special report examines the deficiencies in US anti-terror laws. It demonstrates how US anti-terrorist policy is being undermined in the Palestinian Authority (PA) areas, and documents examples in which recipients of US money are involved in anti-American activities and terror promotion. (for reading the full report click here)

Child Soldiers of the Palestinian Authority
Mother: I would have preferred a different son had died
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

The Palestinian Authority continues to promote the use of children as soldiers and to present their deaths as valuable and heroic.

During a long interview today, PA TV displayed the pictures of two 15-year-old combatants holding an assault rifle and a pistol. [See above] These children were killed while attacking an Israeli town in 2003, and have been honored by PA society for their deed as heroic Shahids (Martyrs).

The text on picture of the dead children reads: "The Popular Resistance Committee proudly announce the falling of three Shahids of the Great Islam."

This picture, shown throughout the interview with the dead children's parents, presents a strong message to viewers -- and especially to children -- that the dead combatants are role models for children.

The interviewer praised 15 year-old Mohammed who “always aspired Shahada (Martyrdom) despite his young age…. He said the 2 dead combatants "became outstanding for all Palestinians, outstanding in their medals of honor -- Shahada.”

The mother of 15 year-old Tareq said: “It was sad and joyous about him, meaning, he always liked the Shahada. All children at his age do… He was my first son, he always cared for me… I would have preferred that one of his other brothers would have attained Shahada instead of him, because he was the joy of my life.”

It is striking that the mother who clearly mourned her son, could not bring herself to break the PA taboo by expressing regret at the loss of her child as a Shahid. Instead, she expressed a preference "that one of his other brothers" would have died as a Shahid. This would be acceptable in PA society, as she did not reject what is expected of her as an Palestinian mother - to offer her sons to Allah as a Shahid. [PA TV June 6, 2004]

PA Called “Women, Children and Elderly”
to Wednesday’s Battle
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, May 20, 2004

Introduction
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has been calling since Monday for “women, children and elderly” to stand in front of Israeli bulldozers and tanks in Rafah even though the PA knew Rafah was the site of armed battles between the Israeli army and Palestinian terrorists.

Israel has apologized over the past two days for injuring and killing civilians during Wednesday’s fighting. The civilians were hurt during the Israeli army operation to search for terrorists and missiles that the PA has smuggled from Egypt.

As PMW has reported in the past, the PA consistently urges civilians to put themselves on the front lines in these military situations. In this case, the PA-controlled daily newspaper called specifically for “women, children and elderly” to enter the fray. The PA intentionally placed civilians on the battlefield, and is ultimately responsible for their fate.

The following is from an article in Monday’s PA daily, in which the PA called for “women, children and elderly” to make an “impassable barrier” in Rafah. The call was answered, and thousands of civilians marched into the heart of the battle, thus setting the stage for the accident.

“Ashraf Jumaa , principal of the Abu Iyad school for organizational staff in Rafah, said to Al-Ayyam that the [civilian] march … will be an impassable barrier for the occupation bulldozers, and will prevent their progress to the Rafah neighborhoods… He called for all the citizens women, children and elderly - to participate… He demanded of all the citizens of the Rafah district, who left their homes and abandoned them, to return to those homes and to stay in them… to cause the failure of the occupation’s plans…” [Al-Ayyam, May 17, 2004]

PA Politicians Direct Mosque
Hate Sermons
by Itamar Marcus, May 16, 2004

Introduction
PMW has repeatedly demonstrated the close coordination between the goals of the PA political leaders and the official sermons of the religious leaders. PA religious leaders have regularly defined the Jews as the enemy of God and the murder of Jews the will of God, while the PA leaders were recruiting suicide bombers. Now for the first time there is explicit documentation that the religious leaders receive direct instructions from the PA political leaders as to the precise hate messages to preach. This week the PA daily reported that the PA political appointees called a meeting of the "the religious teachers, the sermon conductors, and the Imams of the mosques" to spell out the political message they were to preach in their mosques, attacking the US and Iraq in their sermons.

The following was the article that appeared in the PA daily documenting the political directions to the religious leaders.

Headline: "During a religious meeting in Hebron the religious teachers, the sermon conductors, and the Imams of the mosques were called to expose the crimes of the two occupations, the American and the Israeli...

"During a religious meeting that took place yesterday in the Al-Sheik Ali Bakaa’ Mosque in Hebron, the religious teachers, the sermon conductors, and the Imams of the mosques were called to carry the responsibility and the trust that is laid upon their shoulders and expose the crimes of the two occupations the American [occupation] in Iraq and the Israeli [occupation] in Palestine...
Head of the Department of Mosques, Sheik Mohammed Samir Al-Dwiek, gave a briefing of the suffering and the disasters that the Muslims in Iraq and Palestine are exposed to…
It is noteworthy that the meeting was held under the auspices of the Director of the Wak’f in Hebron, Sheik Salah Al-Natsha, and with the presence of Sheik Salah Al-Kawasma, Director of Religious Preaching… and [in presence of] head of the Department of Mosques, the Supervisors of the District’s Mosques, and Imams…" [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 13, 2004]

Introduction
A week after the horrific murder of an Israeli mother and her four daughters the Palestinian official daily has glorified murderer who was responsible for similar murder of a father and his 2 daughters, labeling him “a beacon of light for generations to come.”
According to the daily “Al-Hayat Al-Jadida” Samir Quntar, murderer of Dani Haran and his two daughters in Nahariya in 1979, is a Palestinian hero and “authentic role model”.

The following appeared in the PA daily on in an article dedicated to the “suffering” of Quntar in and Israeli prison:

PA Imam Prays for Arafat's Death as Shahid
By Itamar Marcus, May 7, 2004

Ever since Israeli PM Ariel Sharon's statement that Yasser Arafat as a terrorist leader is not immune from Israeli retribution, Palestinian Authority TV has repeatedly stated that Arafat actually wants to be killed by Israel, which would grant him the status of Shahid (Holy Martyr). In last week's sermon, the Imam restated the Palestinian Islamic belief that death as a Shahid is preferable to life, going so far as to pray for Arafat's death as a Shahid.

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The following is text of the sermon:

"Regarding the threats of this Nazi mass murderer [Ariel Sharon] against President Arafat, we hereby tell him: We are not like you, because we do not desire life. If you threaten to kill President Arafat, we will pray to Allah: "Grant the President Shahada (Martyrdom) for you." Yes, we do not pray - like other preachers pray - for longevity for the rulers; here in Palestine we pray: "Lord, grant the President Shahada for you ". " [PA TV Sermon by Ibrahim Madiras, April 30, 2004]

Egyptian Video Clip: Hate USA and Israel
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, May 6, 2004

Introduction

An Egyptian music video clip promoting hatred of the USA and Israel, called "Hey Arab Leaders," is a big hit in Egypt and the Arab world. Among other hate messages Israel, it says Israel destroyed the World Trade Center, and the US and Israel are dividing up the Arab world.

The use of music and song to promote hatred among children is very common on Palestinian Authority TV (to see examples on PMW Web Site click here) It is seen as a way of influencing children through a popular and effective medium.

The following are texts from the new Egyptian clip that was produced a month ago:

"...Two faces of the same coin, America and Israel.
They made the world a jungle and ignited the fuse.
America spread its wings, doesn't care at all.
No one can stop her, no one can catch her.
Soon he (Bush) will say Iran, then he will say Syria,
But he is silent about [North] Korea.
About that [Twin] Tower, oh people
Definitely! His friends [Israel] were the ones who brought it down.
What terrorism!! [Visual shows Sharon pushing the button]
How many years are left.
For America and Israel acting as bullies. . . "
The singer, Shaaban Abdul Rahim, was interviewed in the official PA daily Al Hayaat Al Jadida this week, and said that his feelings of hatred of Israel and the US were representative of the sentiments of the Arab world in general.

The following is from the interview in the PA daily:

"...He [Shaaban] talks about what is in the heart of all Arab nations and his song "Hey Arabs Leaders"... demonstrates the contempt of American President Bush for all the UN decisions . . . Shaaban's last song "I hate Israel," had great success and the song "Hey Arabs Leaders" also is having a big impact upon everyone...We asked Shaaban about the idea behind the song and he said: "I found that the Arab nation needs a new song with words that will be a clear statement of refusal and resistance... I made the clip because I feel the words and I'm not afraid of 'Israel' or America or their threats and I'm no better then those who are dying every day in Palestine or Iraq."
Q: We heard that you refused [to participate in] parties is America. Is that true?
Shaaban: "I was asked to many parties in America for the Arab communities, and although it is worth a lot of money I will not go to America and I boycott even American cigarettes...I wrote the song 'I hate Israel' in 2000...we did not anticipate the greatness of the success... About the song 'Hey Arabs Leaders,' it must express things that are happening...in the clip we made Sharon's hands long, holding a cake with the writing 'The Arab World,' and Sharon and Bush are dividing up the cake among those with them." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May, 4, 2004]

Holocaust abuse ideology in the
Palestinian Authority
by Itamar Marcus, April 19, 2004

Introduction
Abuse of the memory of the Holocaust is a common theme in Palestinian Authority (PA) teaching. The abuse ranges from Holocaust denial to libels accusing Jews of planning and carrying out the Holocaust.

The following are examples of Holocaust abuse from the Palestinian Authority over recent years.

1. The PA daily taught the libel that Zionist leaders participated in the Holocaust for two purposes: to eliminate Jewish opposition and to force Jews to run from Europe and go to the Land of Israel (British Mandate Palestine).

" . . . If coming back to the suffering and tribulations (caused) by the Nazis, we would read hair-raising things about the entanglement of the Zionist leaders in the "sacrifice" of many Jews in order to kill two birds with one stone: to be rid of those who disagreed with them (meaning Jews opposed to Zionism) on the one hand and, on the other, to push all the Jews to immigrate to Palestine, since Europe had become an unbearable Hell . . . I would like to say that, based on the above, the Jewish - or more accurately Zionist - willingness to sacrifice Jews for the above mentioned cause is a known historical tradition."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 24, 2003]

2. A children's play broadcast on Palestinian Authority TV features a horrific scene of child actors portraying "dead" Palestinian children, accompanied by narration saying that Israelis burned Palestinians in ovens.

"They are the ones who did the Holocaust, their knife cuts to the length and the width of our flesh. . . They opened the ovens for us to bake human beings.They destroyed the villages and burnt the cities.And when an oven stops burning, they light a hundred [more] ovens.Their hands are covered with the blood of our children." [PA TV, March 25, 2004]

3. The figure of six million Jews cremated in the Auschwitz death camp is a lie for propaganda purposes:

"The issue of the Holocaust rises again. It defies disappearing over its half-century because the Zionist propaganda has converted it into a means to produce political and economic benefit... A recently published book by an American researcher, discusses the Holocaust. Employing scientific and chemical evidence, it proves that the figure of six million Jews cremated in the Nazi Auschwitz camps is a lie for propaganda, as the most spacious of the vaults in the camp could not have held even one percent of that number ... The question now discussed in the halls of the universities and the renowned publishing houses in the world's capitols is: Has this hen reached its expiration date, which lays golden eggs for the Jews everywhere? ... Of course there are those who claim that the Jews actively participated in directing European feelings against them [to resist assimilation] When Zionism cannot find an enemy to separate and repel the Jews, it invents such an enemy; and so was the case with the Holocausts. Its need for it [Holocaust] is imperative...
We are concerned that these dramatic cries regarding the Holocaust, whether for or against, are intended to cover up the corresponding Holocaust, that which Zionism is now producing with missile and tank, against the Arabs in Palestine."
[Article entitled "Marketing Ashes," by Hiri Manzour, official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Apr. 13, 2001]

4. The Holocaust is a lie: Dachau and Auschwitz were "cleansing sites."

"...Lies surfaced about Jews being murdered here and there, and the no Dachau, no Auschwitz! [They] were cleansing sites and unfounded claims. No Chelmno, no Dachau, no Auschwitz! [They] were cleansing sites.... What I am saying is they began to publicize in their propaganda media that they were persecuted, murdered and exterminated... Committees acted here and there to establish this entity [Israel-Ed.], this foreign entity, implanted as a cancer in our country, where our fathers lived, where we live, and where our children after us will live. They always portrayed themselves as victims, and they made a Center for Heroism and Holocaust. Whose heroism? What Holocaust? It is our nation which is Heroic, the holocaust was against our people... We were the victims, but we shall not remain victims forever..."
[Educational program "Pages From Our History" Dr. Issam Sissalem, history lecturer, Islamic University Gaza, Palestinian expert on Jews and Judaism, PA TV, Nov. 29, 2001]

5. PA leader on TV: Jews planned the Holocaust.

Dr. Ibrahim Madi teaches on PA TV that Jews planned the Holocaust:
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6. In a PA TV interview with Ismail Elbakawi the PA taught the following "facts" about World War II:

A.The Nazis did not specifically plan the killing of Jews.
B. Jews, Germans, Gypsies, and Poles were all killed in World War II, as happens in war.
C. If Hitler planned any extermination, it was of disabled Germans.
D.The term "Holocaust" in its human sense refers to experiences of the Palestinians, the Gypsies.
E.The "Holocaust industry" is a financial scheme of the Zionist leadership that has generated billions of dollars in profits.
The following is the PA TV interview with Ismail Elbakawi, discussing a book called: The Holocaust Industry and his statements are supported by the interviewer. Elbakawi translated the book: The Fundamentalism of the Jews in Israel.

Elbakawi:

"[The Holocaust] was a real event that occurred from 1939 to 1945. However, it did not just affect the Jews in Europe, but also other nations including the Poles, the Hungarians, the Russians - as you remember, 20 million Russians were killed and Germans, and Gypsies. They were annihilated and killed as a result of the war, and not due to a prior plan . . . It is possibly true that Hitler planned the extermination of disabled Germans. It is likely that these things are true, I don't know . . . This is the historical truth: the true Nazi Holocaust. I apologize for using the word "Holocaust." This is a word that they try to attach only to the Jews who were killed, but I use this expression in the human sense. It can also be used to refer to the Palestinians and the suffering that the Israelis [have caused] them. The Palestinians also have their own private Holocaust, and this is also true of the Gypsies, etc.
What the Zionist leadership in general and the Americans in particular have tried [to do] is to turn this truly tragic historical event into an industrial enterprise, an enterprise that will bring them a lot of capital, a fortune of wealth. For example, they started in Germany in the 1950s with what they called "reparations" and suddenly, in the second half of the 1990s they turned, after Germany to Austria, they turned to Switzerland and began to invent their lies, according to which, the Swiss bought the gold fillings of the Jewish victims that the Nazis had taken from the teeth [of the Jews] ...The Holocaust enterprise forced the Swiss government to approve [the sum of] one billion and 250 million dollars. ..[Why do] so many of the Swiss support Palestinian rights ...? Because Swiss society is very hurt by having discovered the robbery [of the Jews.]" [PA TV, May 27, 2003]

7. "Israeli snakes spread their venom" of Holocaust lies.

"...This right [of the Austrian nation after Heider's winning the election] got shaken or tried to immediately shake it when the Israeli snakes spread their venom in the cloak of the Holocaust lies and started to threaten calamity and catastrophe if the extreme right wing [chosen by the Austrians] got into the government." [Al-Hayyat al-Jadida, Feb. 7, 2000]

8. Crossword Puzzle in official PA daily: The Holocaust is a lie.

Clue: "Jewish Center Commemorating the Holocaust and the Lies"

Solution: "Yad Vashem " [Israel's Holocaust Memorial Center]

[Al-Hayyat al-Jadida, Feb 18, 1999]

9. The Jews transformed their "burnt bodies" into a hen laying golden eggs.

"The Jews transformed what people think is the smoke of their burnt bodies into gold. The Nazi rooster, they already transformed it to a hen laying golden eggs."

10. Exaggeration of the Jewish Holocaust has exceeded all limits.

"Many of the enlightened and the politicians of Europe and America have already been disgusted by the extortion of the Jews and it is quite clear that they have a deep tendency to be free of the yoke of memory which is mixed with terror, especially after it has been known that the Jewish explanation exaggerating the Holocaust, has exceeded all limits and reached a level of imagination of things that could never happen." [Al-Hayyat al-Jadida, Sept. 19, 2000]

11. Jews fabricated the story about gas ovens and the Holocaust to arouse admiration.

"The winds blew in their favor, when the persecution against them by the Nazi Hitler started. . . then the show began. They began to distribute horrific pictures of mass shooting being committed against them and to fabricate the shocking story about gas ovens, [in] which, according to them, Hitler would burn them [the Jews]. Newspaper columns began to fill up with pictures of Jews being cut down by Hitler's machine guns, and of Jews being led to the gas ovens. In these pictures they concentrated on women, children and the elderly. And they took advantage of this in order to arouse admiration for them, while they demand a monetary compensation, grants and contributions from all over the world. The truth is that the persecution of the Jews is a false fable that the Jews called the disaster of the "Holocaust" . . . and took advantage of it in order to arouse admiration . . . And although it is possible that Hitler's attack against the Jews hurt them slightly, it also serviced them to the point where still today they reap the benefits and it was the main door to her winning the American and European admiration and to realizing their dream and their plans . . . When we survey the news agencies, the newspapers, the journals and the world television stations, which the Jews control in the West, it becomes clear to us the extent of their media influence in the world [and their control] of a number of world news agencies, French and British newspapers, and among them the Times newspaper which Zionism controls by means of its buyout by the Jewish millionaire of Australian citizenship, Rupert Murdoch . . . "
[Sayf Ali Al-Jarwan, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July, 2 1998]

12. The list of "Great" Europeans includes Holocaust deniers and a Nazi officer.

This Palestinian daily described a paper of a research center which gives prominence and support to "great" Europeans who withstood the lies of "world Zionism." This list of Europeans includes two prominent Holocaust deniers, a Nazi officer in World War Two and the leader of an extremist right wing political party.

"The Zaid center . . . published a new research paper titled: 'These are the people who challanged Israel in the last 50 years.' This research surveys the honored. . . European leaders, politicians, and thinkers - against world Zionism and Israel....
Five of the most famous personalities who were known for their opposition to the Zionist pressure: the French leader Charles de Gaulle, past general secretary of the UN and the president of Austria, Kurt Waldheim [a Nazi officer] and the famous English historian David Irving [a Holocaust denier], the new Austrian leader Jorg Heider and the writer and thinker Frenchman Roger Grudie [a Holocaust denier].
...The center points out at the beginning of the paper which was defined as an historical paper for the Arab reader, and in it a thanks, appreciation and recognition to these people and others, among those who defend the rights and justice in the world."
[Al-Hayyat al-Jadida. Feb. 6, 2001]

13. Israel far worse than the Nazis.

"Father Yosef Jabaran Sa ada 'With these actions they have been far worse than the actions of Nazism during the Second World War. However, the difference is that they do it now after many laws, agreements and conventions have been published to protect man even in war . . " [Al-Hayyat al-Jadida, Jan. 15, 2001]

".....We are concerned that these dramatic cries regarding the Holocaust, whether for or against, are intended to cover up the corresponding Holocaust, that which Zionism is now producing with missile and tank, against the Arabs in Palestine."
[Hiri Manzour, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Apr. 13, 2001]

14. Palestinian Ministry of Information Web Site, March 18, 2001:

"If the Israeli occupation siege continues on the occupied Palestinian territories, the camps will turn into concentration camps similar to those the Nazis created for the Jews with one difference, the Palestinians were not driven by trains to concentration camps, Jewish soldiers came and encircled Palestinian areas turning them into such camps."

PA Children's Play:
The Jews burned Palestinians in ovens
By Itamar Marcus, April 19, 2004

Introduction
A children's play broadcast recently on Palestinian Authority TV includes a horrific scene of child actors depicting "dead" Palestinian children [below], accompanied by narration saying that Israelis burned Palestinians in ovens.

Today, in recognition of Holocaust Memorial Day, PMW is distributing this video as a reminder that odious libel about the Holocaust continues to this day in the PA education of its children.

Narration of the PA children's play:

"They [Israel] are the ones who did the Holocaust, their knife cuts to the length and the width of our flesh...
They opened the ovens for us to bake human beings.
They destroyed the villages and burnt the cities.
And when an oven stops burning, they light a hundred [more] ovens.
Their hands are covered with the blood of our children."
[PA TV March 25, 2004]

National Post [Canada], April 08, 2004:

Blaming Israel for child bombers?
Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

In a bold attempt at damage control fit for the PR hall of fame, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has come up with an innovative -- albeit bizarre -- response to the tide of world disapproval of recent foiled Palestinian attempts to use youths as suicide bombers.

It's all Israel's fault, of course - but with a twist.

We know the usual pattern of assigning blame to Israel for Palestinian terror attacks. If only Israel would stop targeted killings of terrorist leaders and stop building the wall to keep out terrorists, then the Palestinians wouldn't be driven to blow themselves up, killing and maiming Israeli civilians in the process. Indeed, a good chunk of the world still buys this argument.

But even the most loyal Palestinian sympathizers have had trouble with the Palestinians' recent exploitation of minors, such as planting remote-controlled explosives on an unwitting 11-year-old in Gaza, or duping a naive 16-year-old in Nablus into becoming a suicide terrorist for 100 shekels (about $22 U.S.) and a date with 72 virgins in Paradise. Both attempts were foiled by the Israeli army before the youths could kill or be killed.

News surfaced last week Israel had arrested three more Nablus teens who had been recruited as suicide bombers by Islamic Jihad. The plot was discovered when the older brother of 15-year-old Tamer Khawireh was suspicious of the new cellphone, clothes and cigarettes the Grade 9 student was flaunting.

So the new twist on the "Blame Israel" strategy had to become more inventive. Despite the fact that terrorist organizations have already claimed responsibility for these would-be attacks, the creative PA spin is that Israel -- not terrorist groups -- recruited the kids, planted the explosives and made sure the world media stayed overtime to capture the events for posterity. All in the name of discrediting the Palestinians.

So how did an 11--year-old walk into Israel with a bomb in his bag? According to official PA sources, "...the intelligence services of the occupying authorities [Israel] were the authors, directors and the organizers of the script....As [the boy] was coming home from school he was stopped by soldiers, who placed part of a rifle in his bag together with hand grenades and gas bombs, and then made the boy stand by his open bag so the weapons would be seen .... " [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 27, 2004]

The PA story says that Israeli intelligence collaborators "played with" the mind of 16-year-old Hussam Abdo of Nablus so he would blow himself up. He was caught with an explosive belt March 24 and safely disarmed by Israeli soldiers.

Not only did Israel arrange the would-be suicide mission, according to this revisionist history, but it cleverly manipulated world media to make sure the event received maximum publicity.

According to the PA twist, the Israeli army had asked journalists to stay late at the Nablus checkpoint that day, in anticipation of the arrest. The army then "put pressure on the foreign journalists to focus on the incident."

And the PA allegations go a step further. According to an account in the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Israel goes out of its way to publicize the use of children as suicide bombers - not just to discredit the PA, but to encourage more Palestinian children to blow themselves up.

"The occupation [Israel] in this situation and with this lie, is playing with its own blood, and it is like they are encouraging children to go from stone-throwing to use of explosives.... Israel's focusing accusations about children [in suicide terror] is in fact an open invitation to other children to imitate the accusations, because it is characteristic of children to blindly imitate." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 18, 2004].

In fact, it is the Palestinian Authority, not Israeli intelligence, that has preyed on the tendency of children to "blindly imitate" the actions of their peers and elders, with its systematic and relentless indoctrination of children to seek Shahada, martyrdom for Allah.

Music videos directed at children call child martyrdom "sweet" and offer enticing images of child paradise. One, broadcast hundreds of times since Dec. 26, 2000, features child martyr Muhammad Al Dura in paradise flying a kite, frolicking on a beach and riding a Ferris wheel.

"I am waving to you not in parting, but to say, 'Follow me,'" he tells other child martyrs-in-waiting.

Palestinian textbooks contain poems glorifying child martyrs. Yasser Arafat has called dead Palestinian children "the greatest message to the world" [PA TV, Jan. 15, 2002]. Soccer tournaments and summer camps are named after teenage suicide bombers, thus encouraging children and youth to follow these role models.

Asked on a June 2002 PA TV broadcast whether she prefers Shahada or peace and full rights for the Palestinian people, an articulate 11-year-old girl replies without hesitation, "Shahada."

And according to Palestinian surveys, between 70 per cent and 80 per cent of Palestinian children share her aspiration. Taught to overcome their natural fear of death, they are the young suicide bombers of the future - and they won't all be lucky enough to be intercepted.

Itamar Marcus is founder and director of Jerusalem-based Palestinian Media Watch (www.pmw.org.il). Barbara Crook, a writer and university lecturer in Ottawa, is PMW's North American representative.

World Bank Indirect Funding
of Suicide Terror
Itamar Marcus, April 2, 2004

Introduction
Meetings were held this week between representatives of the World Bank and the Palestinian Ministry of Education regarding significant World Bank investment in PA universities, including "developing the infrastructure for the Palestinian institutions of higher education..." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 25, 2004.]

In doing so the World Bank is ignoring, or is possibly unaware of, the fact that the very PA universities they will be strengthening all have official student branches of Hamas (called Al-Kutlah Al-Islamiyah) and Islamic Jihad (called Al-Jama ah Al-Islamiyah), both terrorist organizations outlawed on the US and EU terrorist list. The World Bank will be building the university infrastructures that will be used by student terrorist organizations to form the backbone of suicide terrorism in coming years.

The Hamas and Islamic Jihad student branches at the PA universities have historically been a breeding ground for terrorists, as campus structures are used to promote murder and terror, and to recruit and plan terrorist activities.

For example, it was Al-Kutlah Al-Islamiyyah (Hamas) at the Al-Najah University that created the horrific celebration of the 2001 Sbarro Pizza bombing by building a mock pizza parlor and decorating the walls and tables with images of pizza and body parts.

Terrorists who have come directly from PA university activity include:

Mahmud Shuraytakh: Chairman of Al-Kutlah Al-Islamiyyah (Hamas) and of the Student Council at Bir Zeit University. Planned a suicide attack on a bus in Tel Aviv Sept. 19, 2002, in which six Israelis were murdered and 71 injured.

Ihab Abdul-Qadir Mahmud Abu Salim: Arab Language student and a member of Al-Kutlah Al-Islamiyyah (Hamas) at Bir Zeit University. Carried out a suicide attack at Zerifin Sept. 9, 2003, in which eight Israelis were murdered and about 20 injured.

Daya Muhammad Hussein Al-Tawil: Engineering student at Bir Zeit University and a member of Al-Kutlah Al-Islamiyyah (Hamas). Carried out a suicide attack at the French Hill junction in Jerusalem March 27, 2001, in which 29 Israelis were injured.

Ramiz Ubaid: Student and a member of Al-Jama ah Al-Islamiyyah (Islamic Jihad) at Bir Zeit University. Carried out a suicide attack at Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv March 3, 1996, in which 13 Israelis were murdered and 118 injured.

Hamid Abu Hajlah: Engineering student and a member of Al-Kutlah Al-Islamiyyah (Hamas) at Al-Najah University. Carried out a suicide attack in Netanya on Jan. 1, 2001, in which three Israelis were injured.

Ramiz Abu Salim: Hamas activist and a student at Al-Quds Open University branch in Al-Birah. Carried out a suicide attack at Kafe Hillel in Jerusalem Sept. 9, 2003, in which seven Israelis were murdered and about 20 injured.

Muhammad Al-Rul: Hamas activist and a student at Al-Najah University. Carried out a suicide attack in Jerusalem June 18, 2002, in which 19 Israelis were murdered and 42 injured.

While governmental and international aid agencies have repeatedly imposed regulations and safeguards to try to prevent inadvertent funding or promotion of Palestinian terrorists, many aid organizations do in fact fund terror promotion.

The World Bank has not been discerning in the use of its funding in the past. For example, it funded the "development of the Dalal Mughrabi Street" in Gaza. This street is named after terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who murdered 36 Israelis and the American photographer Gail Rubin in a 1978 bus hijacking. [Al Quds, Feb. 17, 2003]. They also funded the building of a school in Jenin named after the terrorist head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Abu Ali Mustafa, who was responsible for planning and executing numerous terror bombings in Israel.
[Al Hayat Al Jadida, Oct. 2, 2003]

Other aid organizations have been similarly lax. For example, the Haj Amin al-Husseini Street project in Gaza, named after the former Mufti of Jerusalem (infamous for his close ties to Adolf Hitler), was funded by the German Development Agency together with UNDP (United Nations Development Project). [Al Quds, Feb. 17, 2003]. USAID funded school renovations for the Dalal Mughrabi school. [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida July 30, 2002]

In 2003, USAID funded projects in Palestinian universities, including the Arab American University in Jenin, which sponsored numerous anti-American and terrorist-supporting rallies last year. One event included "blessings" to those fighting American soldiers in Iraq. The rally opened with "a speech given by the Arab-American University lecturer Dr. Hamad Hussein...He blessed the Iraqi resistance for its firm stand against the American- British occupation " [Al-Ayyam, Nov. 4, 2003] This and other anti-American activities continued while USAID was funding programs at this university.

USAID has a budget allocation of $3 million for the 2004 fiscal year for PA higher education programs. But in a January 2004 letter to PMW, a USAID representative said that USAID has ceased funding PA universities directly, and is now giving scholarships to students.

If the World Bank funds PA universities without demanding the closure of their terror branches, this may be the most direct financing of terrorism to date by the World Bank.

The following are the texts of the articles cited above, followed by a listing of PA terror branches and promotional activities in PA universities:

"Dr. Naim Abu Al-Humos, [PA] Minister of Education and Higher Education, met yesterday with a delegation from the World Bank ... The meeting dealt with discussing the aid project in implementing a funding strategy for higher education ... in addition to projects whose goal is developing the infrastructure for the Palestinian institutions of higher education... " [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 25, 2004]

"The elementary school [named after] the Shahid [Martyr for Allah] Abu Ali Mostafa in the town of Araba in the Jenin district was handed transferred to the Education [ministry]... the construction of the school took place... in cooperation with the World Bank.... And based upon the instructions of the president Yasser Arafat the school was named after the Shahid Abu Ali Mostafa, the general secretary of the] Popular Front [PLFP- terror organization] ... "[Al Hayat Al-Jadida 2/10/03]

"The Gaza municipality is currently implementing a large group of developmental projects in various city locations & in a value exceeding 10 million dollars... ...[The projects include] the development of the Dalal Al-Mughrabi Street, funded by the Al-Aqsa fund by the World Bank ...and the Abed Al Kader Al Husseini [ed -Hitler Ally] Street project, funded by the German Development Agency by UNDP, the United Nations Development Project... "[Al Quds, 17/2/04]

The following is a partial listing of newspaper articles and activities indicating the presence of terrorist branches in PA universities.

"The Al-Kutlah Al-Islamiyah (Hamas) in the Bir-Zeit University yesterday held a memorial assembly..." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 30, 2004]

"Yesterday the Al-Kutlah Al-Islamiyah (Hamas) in the national Al-Najah University held a memorial rally in memory of the two Shahids, Sheik Yassin and the student Abu-Halima... "
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 25, 2004]

"The Islamic Union, the student arm of the Islamic Jihad in the Al-Quds Open University in Jenin, organized a mass march yesterday... " [Al-Ayyam, Feb. 2, 2004]

"The memorial rally for [Head of Hamas] Sheik Yassin in the Islamic University in Gaza... was organized yesterday by the Islamic University's student council, [taking place] in the presence of a few of the [Hamas] movement leaders, the president and the board members of the Islamic University Trustees council, the head of the university, and the Academic and administrative staff members... "

"The Al Kutlah Al Islamiyah (Hamas) in the Al-Quds Open University held in the Tobas center its annual "Live Memory" exhibition... "[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 5, 2004]

"A student rally was organized in the Al-Azhar [University] park by the Al-Kutlah Al-Islamiyah (Hamas), commemorating the anniversary of the death as a Shahid of Yihya Ayyash... "[Al-Ayyam , Jan. 6, 2004]

"In elections for student council of Bir Zeit University nearly 50 per cent of the seats went to a coalition of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas student groups. "[Al Hayat Al Jadida, Dec. 11, 2003]

"The new leader of Hamas, Dr Abed Al-Aziz Al-Rantisi... emphasized in his words during the ceremony, held in the Islamic University in Gaza, that the war is raging against the United States and Israel... " [Al Ayyam, March 29 2004]

"The [Hamas university student group] Al-Kutlah Al-Islamiyah- won the student elections in the Islamic University in Gaza..." [Al Ayyam Oct. 23, 2003]

"Al-Jama aa Al-Islamiyah (Islamic Jihad) in the Al-Quds Open [University] in Jenin held a honorary [ceremony] for the families of the Shahids... The president of the University, Doctor Walid Jarar, expressed his appretiation to the Al-Jama'ah Al-Islamiyah initiative... " [Al-Quds, January 14, 2004]

"Al-Jama'ah Al-Islamiyah (Islamic Jihad) arranged a mass assembly yesterday in the Arab-American University on the occasion of the eighth annual Shahid [Martyrdom] day of the former Secretary General, Dr. Fathi Shqaqi, of the Islamic Jihad organization...A large crowd of students and university workers, and dozens of guests were present. . . . [The university lecturer] Dr. Hussein Abu-Hammad gave a speech in the name of the Arab-American University, in which he enumerated the virtues of the Martyr Shqaqi, [founder of the terror organization] as a remarkable national and Islamic commander in his philosophy, his struggles and his affiliations. Abu-Hammad stated that the Shahid was a exclamation mark in the history of the Palestinian struggle. The student factions in the university considered the Shahid Shqaqi a mentor for [the next] generations and as a unique commander... One of the students gave a speech in the name of Dr. Ramadan Abedallah Shalah, the Secretary General of the Islamic Jihad. "[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 4, 2003]

"One of the students of Al-Jama ah Al-Islamiyah (Islamic Jihad) [at the Arab American University in Jenin] delivered the speech for Islamic Jihad Secretary General, Dr. Ramadan Abdullah Shalakh, on his behalf. "[Al-Ayyam, Nov. 4, 2003]

Introduction
Both the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas reject Israel's right to exist, are actively conducting and promoting terrorism, and are telling their people in Arabic that Palestinian terrorism is part of Jihad to weaken and destroy Israel. The only meaningful difference that remains is the PA's acceptance and Hamas's rejection of political process as a vehicle to destroy Israel. The following Op-Ed from today's Jerusalem Post illustrates the disturbing similarities between PA and Hamas ideologies.

Ottawa Citizen, March 28, 2004:

"Dangerous misconception"
"The West has long considered the Palestinian Authority a force for peace
when, in fact, it echoes Hamas's endorsement of terrorism against Israel."
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

The Western world sees Hamas as a terrorist organization seeking Israel's destruction, but treats the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a peace partner, either actual or potential, for Israel. The fact that Israel continues to seek contact with PA leaders heightens the clear distinction made between the PA and Hamas.

But the distance between Hamas and the PA has been shrinking for years. And the way the PA has responded to the killing of Yassin shows just how close the two groups actually are. The PA has gone far beyond its expected level of condemnation of the killing, and has eulogized Yassin as a leader representing all the Palestinian Authority.

PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, for example, told PA TV that just as "Yassin united the Palestinians in his life he united them again in his death." Yasser Arafat's official daily, Al Hayat Al Jadida, published a cartoon of a wheelchair shaped as a map of what the PA calls "Palestine" (which erases all of Israel) thereby stating graphically that Yassin and "Palestine" are one and the same.

In an unprecedented move, PA television ceased all regular programming for days, and except for brief news reports broadcast only slides of the Koran sung to mournful tunes. In the Arab world, this Koran broadcasting is usually reserved for the deaths of heads of state, as was done on Syrian TV after the death of Hafez Assad. That PA TV treated Yassin in this fashion demonstrates his elevated stature among PA leadership and PA society.

Anyone listening to PA leaders' pronouncements in Arabic over the years has recognized that there never was a meaningful ideological divide between the PA and Hamas. It is well understood, for example, that Hamas believes Islam demands Israel's destruction. As the Hamas charter states, "Palestine is an Islamic Wakf the liberation of Palestine is an individual duty binding on all Muslims everywhere."

Less noted is that PA religious leaders have repeatedly made identical rulings. Even when the Oslo Accord appeared to be in its heyday, Yousuf Abu Sneinah, preacher of Al-Aksa Mosque, issued this ruling on PA TV: "The land of Palestine is a Wakf for all The liberation of Palestine is an obligation for the entire Islamic nation " (April 30, 1999).

The perception is that a difference between Hamas and the PA is that the latter, at least in principle, had given up using violence to reach its political goals. Yet it was Arafat who said in 1999, literally anticipating the current terror war: "The agreements won't liberate the land. Every centimeter needs struggle, and the land needs blood" (Al Hayat Al Jadida, January 25, 1999).

When Hamas started using suicide terrorists to kill Israelis in 1996, the PA condemned the killings in English. But in Arabic, PA leaders made it clear that there was no difference in attitude, only a division of labor.

Muhammad Dahlan, then head of Preventive Security in Gaza, said that the presence of Hamas "is important and essential in the cooperation in the building." Hani Alhasan, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, explained the role of Hamas: "Unity is in the nature of construction, and it is incumbent upon us to divide the work among the builders." (Al Ayyam, August 31, 1997).

As long ago as 1997, after the bombing at Tel Aviv's Apropos cafe, a member of the PA Legislative Council expressed his condolences to the family of the suicide bomber during a session of the Legislature, and "his words were interrupted by the applause of the members of the [PA Legislative] Council" (Al Hayat Al Jadida March 27, 1997). It should be stressed that all this cooperation was openly expressed in PA society long before the current terror war began in October 2000.

After starting the terror war, the PA completely erased any differences between the "builders" by creating its own suicide terror unit, the "Aksa Martyrs Brigade," which has committed numerous suicide terror attacks identical to those of Hamas.

IF THERE is any difference today between Hamas and the PA, it's in their attitudes toward temporary agreements with Israel.

While the Hamas charter states, "There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by jihad," the PA has argued that temporary agreements can be used to gain strategic territory from which to fight more easily for Israel's destruction.

Then PA minister Abdel Aziz Shahin explained this just months before the PA started the terror war: "The Oslo agreements [were] a foothold and not a permanent settlement, since war and struggle on the land is more efficient than a struggle from a distant land... The Palestinian people will continue the revolution until they achieve the goals of the '65 revolution..." that is, the destruction of Israel.
(Al-Ayyam, May 30 2000).

Faisal Husseini called the Oslo Accords a "Trojan Horse... the Oslo agreement, or any other agreement, is just a temporary procedure... according to the higher strategy [Palestine is] 'from the river to the sea.'" (Al-Arabi Egypt, June 24, 2001).

Today, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas both embrace the use of terror to fight Israel. The only meaningful difference between them is the acceptance or rejection of political process as a vehicle to destroy Israel.

Marcus is founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch. Crook is PMW's North American representative.

Proof of Systematic PA Indoctrination of its Children to be Child Combatants
and Child Shahids [Martyrs]
by Itamar Marcus, March 26, 2004

The complete PMW report (text with video links) on how the PA convinces its children to aspire heroic Shahada death is now available in 6 languages.

To access full report press the appropriate link:

• English
• German
• French
• Hebrew
• Spanish
• Russian

Links to PA TV broadcasts showing
indoctrination of children

Introduction
This week's suicide terror attempt by a Palestinian teenager received world attention not because it was the first attempt but because TV captured the striking images of the young boy struggling out of the explosive belt. In fact tens of Palestinian Authority [PA] teenagers, some as young as 13 and 14 have gone on suicide missions, many dying and killing others, because PA society has been teaching children that combat and heroic Death for Allah - Shahada [Martyrdom] are expected of them. PMW has been documenting this Palestinian Authority indoctrination and below are the links to striking examples. When PMW presented these videos at a US Senate committee hearing, Senator Hillary Clinton called it: "horrific child abuse " and US Senator Arlen Specter said the PA were not merely "child abusers " but "civilization abusers ".
To view 7 minute video that was presented in the Senate click here

Below are links to:

A. 4 music videos enticing children to be combatants and to aspire death.
B. 11-year old PA girls articulate why they want to die for Allah [ "because afterlife of
Shahid is best "].
C. PA leaders talk of importance of child Shahids: [Arafat: "it's the greatest message
to the world "]

A. 4 music videos enticing children to be combatants and to aspire death.

Song and Dance glorifying child combat and Shahada
In this MTV style music video from PA TV children dance to calls to attack Israelis: "You will not be saved, Oh Zionist, from the volcano of my county's stones " and to the words "I will even willingly fall as a Shahid. " Scenes include throwing stones and frenzied "war dances ". [PA TV 2002 - 2003, repeatedly]

Music Video to 5 years olds: Fight and "Don't be Afraid "
This PA TV music video instructs children to attack soldiers with stones and attempts to allay their fears. "Don"t be Afraid" the 10 year old sings to the 5 year old repeatedly. "The stone in their hand turns into a rifle..." This was broadcast repeatedly 2000 - 2003.

A Farewell Letter Music Video
A young boy leaves a farewell letter to his parents and goes off to seek Death for Allah - Shahada - describing the death he aspires as "sweet. " This PA indoctrination clip is designed to offset a child s natural fear of death, by depicting Shahada as heroic and tranquil.
[more than 500 times on PA TV 2001- 2003]

Mohammed Al Dura Calls Children to Follow him to Paradise - Clip
Through a child actor, this music video portrays a delightful Paradise of Muhammad Al Dura, whose death in a crossfire was broadcast on TV. He is portrayed flying a kite, frolicking on the beach and even at an amusement park. The clip opens with the invitation to other children from Al Dura: "I am waving to you not in parting, but to say 'follow me' ". [PA TV Dec 25, 2000 and repeatedly since then]

B. 11-year old PA girls articulate why they want to die for Allah
[ "because afterlife of Shahid is best "].

Young Children Convinced of Death as a Shahid as Ideal
Two 11 year old girls articulate their personal goal to Die for Allah - Shahada, explaining that all Palestinian children  see Shahada because of its promised grand Afterlife, as more worthwhile than living. [PA TV June 2002]

C. PA leaders talk of importance of child Shahids:
[Arafat: "it's the greatest message to the world "]

Yasser Arafat's Message to Children - "Be a Shahid"
Arafat explains that dead Palestinian children- Shahids - are "the greatest message to the world ".
[PA TV Jan. 15, 2002]

"We Teach Children Shahada" - Head of Children's Organization "
In English, PA leaders have denied that they encourage their children to aspire to Shahada. However in Arabic, the PA continues to express pride in educating children to aspire to Shahada, portraying it as a national achievement. The Director of the Palestinian Children's Aid Association candidly reiterated this PA educational policy, on PA TV. [May 4, 2003]