PMW- Media and Impact


The Daily Telegraph [Australia] 10 February 2005
Puppet masters twist young minds to hate

by PIERS AKERMAN

ONCE again Israeli and Palestinian leaders have verbally agreed to a ceasefire, but there seems little hope of long-term peace while the Palestinian Authority continues to indoctrinate Palestinian children with hate.

The cessation of hostilities is all for the best, but who will save the young Palestinians from the evil cult of anti-Semitism which they are force-fed by the authorities?

Mahmoud Abbas may well declare an end to violence against Israelis, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon may declare an end to Israeli military operations, but while the Palestinian Authority uses its control of the airwaves and the education system to feed lies into the minds of future generations of Palestinians, there is scant reason to believe the Palestinians are approaching the process with clean hands or, indeed, with much honesty.

The Palestinian Authority has made it clear it is not going to actively crack down on militant groups, but it might show some commitment to peace by ending its disgraceful indoctrination program.

According to Itamar Marcus, an international authority on Middle East media, even Palestinian pre-schoolers are being instructed to hate Jews and resolve conflict with violence by the Palestine Authority's official television network.

The indoctrination takes place through programs featuring puppets, songs and dances aimed at the youngest Palestinian children.

Mr Marcus, the director of the respected Palestinian Media Watch organisation, said in Sydney last week that the level of anti-Semitic instruction directed at young Palestinians had reached horrific levels.

"The justification for aggression is no longer territorial ambition, it has become an existential anti-Semitic conflict with the elimination of the Jews the sole goal," he said.

Mr Marcus said the authority's promotion of genocide was conducted in three stages, the first of which collectively labelled Jews as defective in nature and character, and inherent evil enemies of God, with murderous traditions.

In the second phase the audience was instructed that Jews were the cause of all wars and a danger not only to Muslims but all humanity.

Thirdly, instructions were given to fight and kill Jews for Allah and humanity.

"The propaganda is so focussed on violence as the only way forward that it almost precludes any peaceful solution, that's why it's so dangerous," Mr Marcus said.

Examples he gave included a video of a 21-year-old terrorist Reem Riyashi reciting "it was always my wish to turn my body into deadly shrapnel against the Zionists and to knock on Heaven's doors with the skulls of Zionists".

The "knock on Heaven's door" phrase has been used in mosques and by other militants, indicating its absorption into Palestinian culture.

Similarly, calls by Palestinian academics, religious leaders and community figures for Muslims to kill all Jews are repeatedly broadcast by the authority.

The practice of teaching children to hate is spread throughout the Palestinian system.

Not only are pre-schoolers targeted with the poisonous messages of hatred through glove puppets advocating the use of AK47s, there are hate-filled musical programs aimed at older kids and sporting events such as soccer tournaments are named after suicide bombers.

In one soccer competition, each team was named after a different terrorist and the prizes were distributed by the brother of a suicide bomber.

Girls' summer camps are named after female suicide bombers and young girls are taught to admire dead terrorists and suicide as shahadas -- martyrs -- through programs which teach that death as a suicide bomber is not really death but merely a passport to paradise.

"A death-worship society is being created for Palestinian kids," Mr Marcus said.

"To teach a population that you get to heaven through the murder of a Jew is a terrible message to preach."

Horrifyingly, there are clear parallels between the Palestinian Authority's preaching of genocide as a systematic public policy and the ideology Adolf Hitler outlined in his blueprint for the Nazi reich, Mein Kampf.

Mr Marcus says the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the father of modern Middle East terrorism, has not changed the outlook for peace in the region.

"No one on the Palestinian side is saying that you do not achieve peace through violence," he said.

"All that [controversial Sydney Peace Prize winner] Hanan Ashrawi and others are saying is that military action must be judged by its political results.

"No one has said that suicide terrorism is wrong, only that it is damaging now."

Both Fatah and Hamas, the two major terrorist organisations, are merely saying that the current period of negotiation provides a space for "the fighters to rest".

This was the same message that was relayed to the militants during each period of earlier peace talks. and doesn't bode well for the future.

In the United States, Mr Marcus has received bipartisan support for his campaign to end the indoctrination of children with anti-Semitic, genocidal messages.

Senator Hillary Clinton, wife of former US president Bill Clinton, described the authority's programming as an "horrific abuse of children".

"How can you think about building a better future if you indoctrinate your children to a culture of death?" she asked.

That is a question Australian supporters of the Palestinian cause might well ask themselves.

International Herald Tribune, Dec. 22, 2004:

The Palestinian schoolbooks:
Planting seeds of the next war
By Itamar Marcus

One of the most meaningful gauges of the integrity of a peace process and its likelihood for success is the degree to which the "peace partners" educate towards peace. It is for this reason that the entire Palestinian Authority (PA) education apparatus, both formal and informal, has been such a tragic disappointment. Instead of seizing the opportunity to educate future generations to live with Israel in peace, the PA has done everything in its power to teach hatred to young minds.

Compounding the problem is that ever since the hatred in the Palestinian textbooks has been exposed and world pressure has been mounting to eliminate the hatred, various defenders of the PA curriculum have surfaced, trying to legitimize this problematic educational system. The truth is that the PA schoolbooks, both old and new, incite to hatred, violence and anti-Semitism, and it's tragic that their defenders are enabling the PA to avoid necessary peace education.

Anti-Semitism in presented openly in PA education. In the new 6th grade book Reading the Koran, children read about Allah's warning to the Jews that because of their evil Allah will kill them: "...Oh you who are Jews, if you think that you are favored of Allah... Then long for death if you are truthful... for the death from which you flee, that will surely overtake you..." In other sections they learn of Jews being expelled from their homes by Allah, and in another Jews are said to be like donkeys: "Those [Jews] who were charged with the Torah, but did not observe it, are like a donkey carrying books..." [1]

And while the Koran and Islam are certainly not under scrutiny here, it is tragic that although the Koran and Islam have positive traditions regarding Jews, the PA educators have chosen to incorporate only hateful religious traditions. PA children are left with the impression that that the Koran sees the Jews as an enemy of God, and consequently their enemy as well.

In the new textbooks, Israel is de-legitimized as a state. Israel is portrayed as a foreign colonial occupier: "Colonialism: Palestine faced the British occupation after the First World War in 1917, and the Israeli occupation in 1948..." [2] Once Israel is an "occupation" it is a logical step to define all of Israel's cities, regions and natural resources as being part of "Palestine," including the Beersheba, the Negev, the Sea of Galilee.[3] Israel's land is called the "stolen homeland," Israel's creation the "catastrophe" and an encyclopedia is cited that was written for "...Palestinians, so that they would remember their stolen homeland and work for its salvation..."[4]

This teaching to not recognize Israel's existence is cemented through dozens of maps in the schoolbooks in which "Palestine" encompasses all of Israel. The argument that the map is not modern "Palestine" but "Mandatory Palestine" is an insult to our intelligence. Children reading these schoolbooks believe they are looking at maps that reflect the current situation, not maps and pictures of British territory more than half a century ago.

Completing the dangerous messages of the new books is the teaching that it is a religious obligation for Israel to be destroyed:

"Islam encourages this [love of homeland] and established the defense of it as an obligatory commandment for every Muslim if even a centimeter of his land is stolen. I, a Palestinian Muslim, love my country Palestine..."[5]

The complete message Palestinian children are taught is that Jews, according to Allah, are like donkeys; Israel is a colonial occupier who stole their land; the cities, lakes and deserts of Israel are "occupied Palestine;" and the Palestinian children are learning that they have an obligation to liberate it "even if a centimeter is stolen."

The result of this delegitimization is a belief, frequently expressed by Palestinian children, that justice can be achieved only through Israel's destruction. Speaking on PA TV, a 14-year-old boy explained: "The Israelis [came] from Holland, America, Iran. They [the Jews] came to take Palestine, that is Tel-Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Ramle. All these cities belong to Palestine. We must expel all Israelis from Palestine. Because Israel - there is nothing called Israel in the world." [PA TV Dec. 25, 2003]

Having never seen Israel on a map in school or on television, this intelligent 14-year-old has concluded, "There is nothing called Israel in the world."

Finally it should be stressed that all the new Palestinian schoolbooks cited here were written during the most optimistic periods of the peace process, before the violence began in September 2000. They are not a response to the war but an _expression of dangerous ideology that has to be replaced if there will ever be peace. The ongoing attempts to defend these PA schoolbooks are tragic, as the PA is using these arguments to justify its education, and to refuse to improve their books. The PA is planting the seeds of the next war in its youth. The defenders of PA hate education are protecting and nurturing those seeds of war.

** Itamar Marcus is Director of Palestinian Media Watch, was Israeli representative to the Tri - Lateral Anti Incitement Committee established under the Wye accords, and has written reports on Palestinian Authority, Syrian and Jordanian schoolbooks.

***

[1] [Reading the Koran, grade 6. p.20, 23, 78]
[2] [National Education, sixth grade, p. 16]
[3] [Our Beautiful Language, grade 6, Part A, p. 64, National Education, sixth grade, pp. 9-10]
[4] [Our Beautiful Language, sixth grade, Part A, p. 112]
[5] [Islamic Education, sixth grade, Part A, p. 68]
*NOTE: This is the full version of the article, which the International Herald Tribune edited for space.

A Lust for Death
By Mindelle Jacobs, Sept 25, 2004

Today is Yom Kippur and Jews everywhere are fasting and praying for a healthy, happy new year. In Jewish tradition, it is the day God decrees who will live and who will die.

In stark and sickening contrast to the Jewish plea for life is the relatively new but increasingly vociferous cry for death resounding among Palestinians.

The appeal for life is universal - the most basic human instinct. The mass yearning for death, especially when it's accompanied by the goal of murdering as many people as possible, reflects a society that is unimaginably depraved.

Palestinians who have perverted Islam find it strange that most people in the world cherish life.

"We are not afraid to die and do not love life," the chairman of the Islamic University of Gaza's history department said on Palestinian Authority television (PATV) two years ago.

The tragedy is that the cult of death is not being promulgated by just one crackpot, but by Palestinian leaders of all stripes.

The message that murder-suicide is a religious obligation has suffused Palestinian society to such an extent that it will take a generation to erase.

And that's only if the civilized world is able to convince the Palestinians to make peace with Israelis instead of glorifying bloodshed.

Peacemakers have a long road ahead. Last week, the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported that two Palestinian Authority religious leaders openly called for the genocide of Jews.

The PMW is a privately funded group that monitors and translates virtually everything broadcast or published by the Palestinian Authority. It highlights the contradictions between the image the Palestinians present to the world in English and the messages they spread to their own people in Arabic.

Barbara Crook, PMW's North American representative, was in Edmonton this week to speak to the Jewish community about the PA's chilling obsession with murder and death.

It's necessary to promote peace efforts, such as the summer camp that brought together Israeli and Palestinian teens in Ottawa recently, Crook said.

But acknowledging the "darker side" of the conflict is also crucial, she added.

"I believe that all the peace-building and the common ground and the bridge-building activities are very important," she said in an interview.

"But we have to be aware of (PA-promoted hatred) because that's the only way the problem's going to be dealt with from all sides."

Last summer, when the so-called road map for peace was being pushed, the PA broadcast a seven-minute peace video - once.

In comparison, said Crook, Palestinian leaders have been inciting their people to kill Jews for years.

In English, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is quick to condemn the murder of Israelis. In Arabic, however, he praises kids bent on murder-suicide.

"Is it not the greatest message to the world when that hero becomes a (martyr)? We are proud of them," Arafat said on PATV in 2002.

The indoctrination of children to seek death for Allah is particularly insidious, said Crook, noting that PA music videos disseminate the repugnant idea that killing and dying for Allah is better than making peace.

Crook showed a video clip of an 11-year-old girl being interviewed on PATV.

"What is better, peace and full rights for the Palestinian people, or Shahada (death)?" asks the host.

"Shahada," answers the girl.

Shocked? Don't be. "Ask for death" is the message the PA has been conveying to its children for years.

A lust for death - not despair - is driving Palestinian young people to commit terrorism. And the blame lies entirely with the Palestinian leadership.

Confronted with this grim scenario we're facing an uphill battle, but continuing to expose the PA's ideology of hate and celebration of death is a step in the right direction.

Cutting off foreign aid linked to terror is also necessary.

Is Canadian money funnelled through the United Nations going to support Palestinian summer camps and soccer tournaments named after suicide bombers?

"I don't yet know the answer to that," said Crook. Perhaps it's time Canadians found out.

Illustration:
photo by AP
Rahamim Komemi, his wife Aviva and one of their daughters comfort each other during the funeral of Israeli border police Cpl. Menashe Komemi at Mount Hertzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on Thursday. Komemi was one of two border police officers killed Wednesday when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew herself up as they were trying to check her bags near a bus stop in Jerusalem.

These children live to die
Fanatics brainwash young with culture of 'martyrdom' and murder
By Licia Corbella, Sept. 21, 2004

Hopelessness, say the unthinking and uninformed, is what lies behind Palestinian youth committing acts of terrorism.

In fact, the polar opposite is true of not just Palestinian terror, but all Islamic terrorism. Rather, it is hope -- fuelled by official Palestinian Authority propaganda -- that drives this terrorism, carried out so often by brainwashed children.

Don't believe me? Fine.

But maybe then you'll believe the children themselves. Maybe you'll believe the pro-martyrdom music videos, advertisements, speeches and sermons played every single day on the Palestinian Authority television.

Maybe you'll believe it when you see a hijab-wearing mother kiss her 17-year-old son goodbye and then brag to the camera how she has chosen Shahid -- or martyrdom -- for her son, telling him, prior to his murderous mission, don't you dare come back to me alive.

"I give my son to Jihad for Allah," says this evil woman to Arab News Network TV, which glorified her.

"This is a religious obligation for us," she adds, smiling with pride for the camera after it became known her son murdered five Israeli teenagers before being killed himself.

"If I were to have compassion for him or allow him to change his mind it would not be right. I sacrificed him for something greater. How? Because I love my son and I want to choose the best for him."

Still don't believe me? See for yourself.

Today, at 7 p.m. at the Calgary Jewish Centre, 1607 90 Ave. S.W., Barbara Crook, the volunteer North American representative of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) will show a video and give a talk on this troubling topic.

PMW is a Jerusalem-based organization that examines and reports on the way in which the Palestinian Authority-controlled news media foment anti-Semitic hatred and indoctrinate Palestinian children to become martyrs for Allah.

It's the same video documentary shown by PMW at a U.S. Senate committee hearing on Oct. 30 last year that so shocked those who watched it that they have drafted amendments to the 2005 U.S. Foreign Operations Bill that will make it much more difficult for U.S. foreign aid money to be used for terror promotion.

Senator Hillary Clinton was quoted in the Jerusalem Post the day after watching the film saying: "Horrific abuse of children. How can you think about building a better future ... if you indoctrinate your children to a culture of death?"

Senator Arlen Specter came to much the same conclusion during that Senate hearing. "The characterization at the end about (the PA being) child abusers is a vast understatement. They're civilization abusers. The children are their means to destroy civilization."

"Essentially there are two very different images of Palestinian society," says Crook, who worked as a journalist for years for daily newspapers in Canada and who converted to Judaism in 1997.

"The one the PA leaders present in English to the world's media -- where you see Yasser Arafat saying things like: 'We deplore suicide bombing, and this is a dispute about borders,' versus what they're telling their own people in Arabic, which is: 'There should be no Israel, it has no right to exist, the Jewish people should be killed.'

"That's a huge discrepancy and I have many, many examples," says Crook, who backs up her claim by e-mailing literally dozens upon dozens of chilling examples of translated sermons, textbook passages and the like.

But it is the documentary, in which you see and hear for yourself how pervasive and repetitive this culture of death and martyrdom glorification is that is most chilling of all.

Over and over again, the Palestinian Authority tells children -- through grade school textbooks, mesmerizing music videos, television advertisements and speeches at schools by Arafat himself -- the noblest goal in life, and the best way to make their mothers and fathers proud,is to die for Allah while murdering Jews and other infidels.

Just a few days ago, PMW sent out a bulletin saying that twice in three days, PA religious leaders have openly called for the genocide of Jews. Broadcast on official PA TV, both called for the murder of Jews until the Jewish people -- often referred to as pigs and monkeys -- are annihilated.

"To support these mandatory killings, both cited the same Haddith -- Islamic tradition attributed to Mohammed -- expressing Allah's will that Muslims will kill Jews before the 'Hour of Resurrection,'" wrote Crook along with co-writer and PMW Director Itamar Marcus.

At one point, the 25-minute video, which can be downloaded from PMW's website (www.pmw.org.il) shows Arafat, with his trademark grin, giving a speech to a bunch of school kids -- maybe 10 or 11 -- praising 14-year-old "Shahid" or martyr, Faris Ouda.

"We are proud of this growing generation ... that was represented by your colleague, the hero Shahid, Faris Ouda!" bellowed Arafat to the cheering youngsters.

The PA official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on Nov. 30, 2000 reported: "On the day of his death Faris Ouda left his home with a slingshot, after having made himself a wreath decorated with photos of himself and having written on it "The Brave Shahid Faris Ouda'..."

Tellingly, he also said to his mother, "Don't worry, mother, Shahada (martyrdom for Allah) is sweet," which parrots a line in an oft-repeated PA music video glorifying children suicide bombers.

When asked by a television host on PA TV: "What is better, peace and full rights for the Palestinian people, or Shahada?" 11-year-old girls Walla and Yussra described Shahada as "very beautiful."

"The children of Palestine have accepted the concept that ... death by Shahada is very good," said Yussra. "We benefit not from this life, but from the afterlife."

Not a hopeless desperate word to be found anywhere.

And that's the scariest thing of all.

THE WASHINGTON TIMES, June 16, 2004
U.S. aid goes to terrorism backers
By David R. Sands

U.S. lawmakers want to tighten foreign aid laws to close loopholes that they say have allowed American aid dollars to go to Palestinian groups working with or fostering terrorist-supporting organizations.
In one instance, about $410,000 in American aid helped finance the new Salah Khalaf Recreation and Sports Center in the West Bank city of Nablus.
The center, officially opened May 29, is named for the man considered the spiritual godfather of the Palestinian Black September faction responsible for the 1972 massacre at the Munich Summer Olympics.
The effort by U.S. lawmakers was triggered by a report in Palestinian Media Watch that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) money was being funneled to Palestinian organizations even though they have refused to sign a pledge saying they would not work with officially designated terrorist groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.
In addition, Palestinian municipalities and universities have accepted substantial U.S. aid, freeing up other funds for anti-Israel and anti-U.S. protests or to honor terrorist "martyrs."
Khalaf, the Black September leader, was a close associate of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat until he was assassinated in an intra-Palestinian feud in 1991.
Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, sits on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee overseeing USAID funding.
"In light of the new disclosures, we're going to have to amend the statute to prohibit U.S. funds from going to any entity, even municipalities, from engaging in activities honoring terrorists or doing anything to condone terrorist activities," Mr. Specter said.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Florida Republican and chairman of the House International Relations subcommittee overseeing Middle East issues, called the diversion of U.S. tax dollars to such efforts "unconscionable."
Recipients of U.S. aid "must reject terrorism as a condition of receiving that aid," she said. "The Palestinian Authority apparently does not believe this is important to do."
Palestinian civic and aid groups received $174 million last year from the U.S. government.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, USAID has required aid recipients to submit a "Certification Regarding Terrorist Financing" to ensure that no U.S. government money is being funneled to terrorist groups.
But the Palestinian Legislative Council, dominated by Mr. Arafat's Fatah organization, rejected the demand earlier this month, as did at least 30 Palestinian nongovernmental groups.
Azmi Shuaibi, chairman of the legislative council's economic committee, called the USAID demand a violation of Palestinian Authority law forbidding charities and nongovernmental organizations from accepting conditional aid.
Mr. Shuaibi also accused Israel of exploiting the issue to "distort the Palestinian national struggle" by defining legitimate resistance groups as terrorist organizations.
Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups have extensive social and health networks that operate throughout Palestinian territories. The head of one Palestinian civil rights group called the USAID demand "cheap blackmail."
USAID West Bank and Gaza Strip spokeswoman Monica Pataki said the agency had consulted extensively earlier this year with Palestinian groups, seeking a compromise on the counterterrorism pledge. She said the agency was acting in line with all U.S. regulations in its programs in Palestinian territories.
Congressional alarm was triggered by an unpublished report by Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch, which maintained that USAID funds were going to Palestinian universities and municipalities that had allowed anti-U.S. and anti-Israel protests.
USAID said it carefully monitors grants made to individual Palestinian students, but many Palestinian campuses receiving U.S. aid dollars also support official branches of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. These two groups jointly control a number of college student unions.
One Palestinian university even staged a re-enactment celebrating the deadly August 2001 suicide bombing of a Sbarro's restaurant in Jerusalem.
"We are in favor of money going to support genuine projects helping Palestinians," said Itamar Marcus, head of Palestinian Media Watch, which monitors the Palestinian press to expose what it calls the "contradictions" between Palestinian rhetoric and reality.
"But it is scandalous that U.S. money is helping to promote terrorism and to send a strong message to young people that these so-called martyrs, whether Hamas killers or terrorists who killed American or Israeli athletes, are heroes," Mr. Marcus said.

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Reply from Kerstin Müller (Minister of State in the Foreign Ministry of Germany):

The Federal Government is aware that there are broadcasts with anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish content in the Palestinian media. Bilaterally as well as together with its EU partners, the Federal Government has repeatedly and emphatically called for a stop to this deliberate agitation. This demand is also an element of the Road Map.

The Palestinian Authority began producing its own educational materials for Palestinian schools in 1997 and has since replaced the textbooks for several grades. The teaching materials have undergone some qualitative improvements in comparison with those previously in use. Among other things, according to the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI) in Braunschweig, there is no more Jew-baiting in these new textbooks.

The line quoted is from a poem in an Arabic language and literature textbook (“Our Beautiful Language”, p. 81, 7th grade). The passage in question does indeed present the defence of a “life in freedom and dignity” and of the “fatherland” as a virtue, even if it entails one’s own death. Under the current circumstances the Federal Government deems this representation highly problematic.

The Federal Government funds studies on textbooks with a view to making a concrete and constructive contribution to improving Palestinian educational materials. For more detailed information see the GEI study on Palestinian textbooks (GEI Series Vol. 110/1) scheduled for release in the spring of 2004.

Member of the Bundestag Dr. Friedbert Pflüger (CDU/CSU):

Against this background does the Federal Government know whether countries in the Islamic world use textbooks preaching anti-Semitism or hatred of Israel, the US and the West?

Dr. Friedbert Pflüger with CDU-Chairwoman Angelika Merkel meets US Vice President Cheney in the White House Reply from Kerstin Müller (Minister of State in the Foreign Ministry of Germany):

The Federal Government does know of reports to this effect. International and German universities and institutes are currently conducting studies on the portrayal of the West and other religions in textbooks in the Arab world; these studies have yet to be concluded.

Member of the Bundestag Dr. Friedbert Pflüger (CDU/CSU):

Is it true that in September President Yassir Arafat and Palestinian Minister of Sports Jibril Rajoub sponsored a football tournament in which the 24 contending teams were named after terrorists like Yechya Aysah (built the first Hamas bombs) and Dalai Mughrabi (a female terrorist who hijacked a bus in 1978 and killed 36 civilians), and if so, how does the Federal Government view this matter?

Reply from Kerstin Müller (Minister of State in the Foreign Ministry of Germany):

Member of the Bundestag Dr. Friedbert Pflüger (CDU/CSU):

Reply from Kerstin Müller (Minister of State in the Foreign Ministry of Germany):