Palestinian Incitement
PA Denies Arutz Sheva Report of Incitementby Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has denied reports in Arutz Sheva that it is guilty of incitement and insists that Israeli media and schools are sources of agitation.
WAFA, the official PA website, stated on Monday that it is not incitement to refer “to cities inside Israel and present documentaries about their Palestinian history.” It added, “Incitement is actually found in the Israeli media and school textbooks.”
WAFA did not comment on several reports in Arutz Sheva that the PA has honored terrorists by naming streets and town squares after them, distributing maps that show all of Israel as “Palestine,” and praising terrorists as “martyrs” who serve as a role model.
“A Palestinian state on the 1967 borders does not mean that cities in historic Palestine are not Palestinian any more,” the website stated. However, the term “Palestinian” in reference to Arabs never existed until recent years.
Ahmad Zaki, director of Voice of Palestine radio, accused the Israeli media of “incitement and falsifying facts as it continues to refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem as Yerushalayim."
Fatah Revolutionary Council member Dimitri Diliani condemned Arutz Sheva’s reports, which he said are a “part of the Israeli media war against President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority."
“It’s impossible that the Palestinian curricula are inciting as they are internationally monitored through programs to support and enhance them,” he argued.
The Palestinian Authority apparently has become more sensitive to reports in Arutz Sheva and media watchdog agencies such as CAMERA and Palestine Media Watch (PMW). Several key Congressmen have reviewed the reports and have expressed shock at the Palestinian Authority education system’s spreading the idea that Israel does not exist while praising terrorists.
On Sunday, WAFA accused other Israeli media of incitement, citing the religious newspaper HaModia. The alleged incitement was based on an article that stated, “When the Israeli government signed the prisoners’ swap deal with the Palestinians, a new equation has been formed. We learned a lesson a long with the rest of the world that one Jew equals 1027 Arabs. This is the price that the Middle East policy has set for them.”
Two other hareidi religious newspapers and the News1 website were charged with inciting because they published an article by a rabbi who wrote, “Those who organized the exchange deal tried to give it some creditability by claiming that they have tried their best to free Shalit, but this is not true. Doing your best means to fight, not to give in and sell your values. By releasing those murderers, we damaged the legitimacy of our fight against terrorism.”
Knesset Member Zevulun Orlev also was allegedly also guilty of incitement by commenting that if terrorists continue to fire missiles from Gaza, “Israel must fire back at Palestinians and strike Gaza extensively. Israel must clean up the Strip from terrorism as it is currently doing in Judea and Samaria.”
Ironically, WAFA quoted comments in other newspapers that recalled that PA textbooks “represent Jews as ‘invading snakes’” but did not try to refute the statements.
As published online at ArutzSheva, 22 November 2011
Tags: Palestinian Authority ,Incitement ,Israel ,Arutz Sheva
Labels: Communication, Conflict, Israel, Palestinian Authority
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, November 22, 2011
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