Unfortunately, the typical news consumer has no idea what Sharon is
talking about, since, as HonestReporting has continually indicated, the western
media has largely turned a blind eye to the incitement against Israel and the
U.S. that permeates Palestinian culture.
Palestinian cultural incitement is a prime focus of the HonestReporting
documentary film
Relentless, which was cited yesterday
(Nov. 24) in the Wall
Street Journal for 'chillingly
show[ing] children on a Palestinian TV show expressing their desire to be
suicide bombers, urged on by the host ― who blew herself up in Jerusalem.'
Here are some more recent examples of the material filling
Palestinian living rooms and classrooms (courtesy
Palestinian Media Watch):
●
Official PA newspapers:
A
graphic cartoon in Nov. 22's official PA daily, Al Hayat al Jadida,
shows an American soldier raping an Iraqi woman, while the Arab world looks on
with amusement, or assists.
This PA paper has continually spread outrageous lies among the
Palestinian population, for
example: Israel as the 'actual source' behind Palestinian and world
Islamic terror, the IDF
mutilating the bodies of Palestinians, and Israel handing out poison candies
to Palestinian children.
A March, 2004 cartoon in Al Hayat (at left) showed Ariel Sharon
eating Palestinian babies, and the paper recently portrayed Condoleeza Rice as
an evil 'exterminator' of the Arab people.
● Official PA TV: For years, official Palestinian
TV has been filled with speakers and images that
glamorize and promote suicide terror
and violence, even to young children.
The latest: A
children's
TV program on the importance of trees features a talking chick (at right) who
is asked how he'd
respond if someone would cut down a tree in front of his house. The
chick answers:
What I'll do to him? I'll fight him and make a big riot, I'll call the whole
world and make a riot. I'll bring AK-47s [assault rifles] and the whole world,
I'll commit a massacre in front of the house!
So while Israeli and western toddlers are watching Barney ('I love you, you
love me'), Palestinian kids are told that massacres are the way to resolve conflict.
In addition, televised sermons by Palestinian
clerics continue
to encourage
terrorist jihad against all Jews, and even
music
videos promote hatred against the Jewish people.
● Official PA classrooms: The 2004
PA schoolbook for 6th
graders urges the 11-year-olds to take an active part in military
activity ― greatly increasing the chances of Palestinian child casualties.
And though the PA claims it has reformed its schoolbooks to remove such
material, Itamar Marcus
reports that even the new books 'include anti-Semitism, de-legitimize Israel's
existence and incite to hatred and violence.' All of Israel is said
|
|
Map of Israel under Palestinian flag,
from Hebron school. |
to be an 'occupation,' and all of Israel's cities, regions and natural resources are
presented as part of 'Palestine'. For example:
'Among the famous rocks of southern Palestine are the rocks of Beersheba and
the Negev' and of 'Palestine's Water Sources... The most important is the Sea of
Galilee.' [from Our Beautiful Language, grade 6, Part A, p. 64, National Education,
sixth grade, p. 9-10]
The denial of Israel's very legitimacy is reinforced through
dozens of textbooks and maps in which the entire land mass is called
'Palestine', and Israel does not exist within any borders.
*
* *
The ongoing incitement in Palestinian media, and the education to
violence and denial of Israel in Palestinian schools, is one of the
darkest aspects of
Yassir Arafat's legacy, undermining any potential progress
toward long-term co-existence. But, for some reason, the media have been very reluctant
to report the problem.
The
Chicago Sun-Times was one of the only papers to buck the trend this
week,
recognizing in a staff editorial that
Palestinians should have taken care of this long ago, if they
really want to someday live in peace with their neighbors. It is
impossible to negotiate at a diplomatic level while broadcasting
hatred toward your partner in peace. Sharon called his demand "a test
of the Palestinian leadership." It is, and a fair one.
HonestReporting encourages subscribers to write a letter to your
local paper ― or, better yet, an op-ed piece ― using the
examples above to explain the background for Israel's renewed demand for the removal of
inciting material from Palestinian media and classrooms.
Thank you for your ongoing involvement in the battle against media
bias.
HonestReporting
