Memorandum from Palestinian Media Watch
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY INCITEMENT OF HATRED,
VIOLENCE AND GENOCIDE
INTRODUCTION
There is significant evidence documenting Palestinian
Authority [PA] incitement to hatred, violence and genocide. The
PA uses numerous media mediums, including music videos for children,
educational programs and religious lessons to inflame the Palestinian
population to hatred, violence and terrorist activities. Jews
and Judaism are presented as inherently evil, Israel existence
as a state is de-legitimized and denied, and killing Jews is presented
as justified, heroic, and even mandatory.
The most abhorrent murderers of Jews are turned
into role models and heroes for Palestinian youth, such as in
the naming of a soccer tournament for 11 year old boys after Abd
Al-Baset Odeh—the suicide bomber who murdered 30 in the
Passover Seder suicide bombing. (Sports section, Al Hayat Al Jadida
Jan 21, 2003.) This past summer tens of summer camps were named
for suicide bombers, including a camp for teenagers named after
a teenage suicide bomber, Ayyat Al Akhras, and a camp for girls
named after Wafa Idris, the first woman suicide bomber. There
can be no greater incitement to hatred and violence for children
than the systematic turning of Palestinian terrorists into role
models for children.
This incitement to hatred and violence is the
single greatest long-term obstacle to peace, not only for Israel
but the entire Western world. The tragedy of 9/11 has taught the
world that when people are taught hatred in one country there
is no telling where it may be expressed. Britain in particular
must be concerned as Britain is often targeted for hatred by the
PA. We have recordings of public prayers on TV by top PA religious
leaders, for Allah to destroy Britain.
What has been clear is that it is no longer
merely a fringe element in the PA that supports terror but the
entire mainstream of PA leadership and society. International
pressure must be brought on the PA, through all available means,
including political isolation, to force them to educate for peace,
otherwise the foundation of future world terror will be children
growing up today in the PA.
The following are examples of means used by
the PA to encourage hatred, violence and genocide against Jews
and Israel.
1. Religious Hatred
Palestinian religious leaders in their sermons
and religious teaching have defined the conflict with Israel as
an existential battle of good, represented by the Palestinians,
verses the evil Jews whom Allah is said to have cursed. Killing
Jews has been portrayed as the work of Allah: "every where
you meet them kill them" [Oct 13 2000] and "Allah loves
those who fight on his behalf. . . `your Lord has declared that
he will surely send against them [the Jews] until Resurrection,
those [Arabs and Muslims] who will afflict them with terrible
torment," [6 Dec 2002].
Dr Hassan Khader, founder of the Al Quds Encyclopedia,
during a hate lecture on PA TV this summer focusing on what he
described as Israel's war against Palestinian trees, made a point
of quoting the following old Islamic tradition defining the murder
of Jews as the work of God: "Mohammed said in his Hadith:
"The Hour [Day of Resurrection] will not arrive until you
fight the Jews, [until a Jew will hide behind a rock or tree]
and the rock and the tree will say: `Oh Muslim, servant of Allah,
there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!'" [PA TV July
13, 2003] This Hadith which elevates the murder of Jews to mandatory
religious obligation, has been cited numerous times by PA leaders
as mandatory in the current conflict.
Jews are defined as "cursed . . . monkeys
and pigs, conceited, arrogant, disloyal and treacherous, and will
be tortured on Judgment Day . . . the most brazen among mankind,
with hatred towards the believers The Jews are Jews, and we are
forbidden to forget their character traits even for a moment,
even for a blink of an eye." [Palestinian Television Dr Mustafa
Najem 6 Dec 2002].
The education of Palestinians to see the conflict
with Israel as a continuous existential religious war for Allah
until the Jews are defeated, is one of the most dangerous forms
of incitement as believing Muslims are left with no alternative
other than to fight and kill Jews. This incitement to Genocide
must be stopped and those promoting it can be prosecuted under
international law.
2. Musical Hate Videos
While Music videos around the world are used
to entertain children, in the PA they are used indoctrinate children
to hatred, violence, and Shahada [Death for Allah]. Regularly
broadcast PA music videos have actors depicting "Israelis"
carrying out execution style murders of old men, woman and children,
and blowing up mothers with their babies. In one music video broadcast
continuously thorough 2003 a girl's mother is murdered in cold
blood in front of her eyes. In another, broadcast tens of times
in 2003, the image of young girl on a swing turns into a flaming
inferno, and a football blows up while children are playing. Children
are taught through these videos to hate, to be violent, and even
are openly encouraged to seek Martyrdom. Music Videos designed
to offset a child's natural fear of death, portray child Martyrdom
as both heroic and tranquil have appeared on PA TV repeatedly
for three years. [2000-03] One clip for children ends with the
words: "Ask for Death—the Life will be Given to you."
3. Honoring and glorifying terrorist murderers
and suicide bombers
Many schools, cultural events, educational programs,
sport events and trophies, are named after terrorist murderers
and suicide bombers. It is inconceivable that young boys participate
in a sporting event named after the suicide bomber who killed
30 in the Passover Seder Massacre, or that young girls attend
an Ayyat Al Akhras summer camp, named for a teenage suicide bomber.
The practice must cease and the names must be changed.
4. Hatred and anti Semitism in the PA schoolbooks
The hatred and anti Semitism in the PA schoolbooks
must be removed. The PA argument that many of the books are copies
of Jordanian books is not relevant to the issues at hand, which
is, the educational damage being done to the children. A child
being taught that Jews are evil is not going to be less influenced
because of the identity of the publisher is Jordanian and not
Palestinian. In addition, even the new PA produced schoolbooks
educate to hatred, de-legitimize Israel, and include anti Semitic
themes. This education is guaranteeing to perpetuate the conflict
in to the next generation.
Director of Palestinian Media Watch
December 2003
Annex A
Teaching Hatred of Israel and Jews in
the new Palestinian Authority Schoolbooks
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 dismal disappointment.
Instead of seizing the opportunity to educate the future generations
to live with Israel in peace, the PA has done everything in its
power to teach hatred to young minds.
To conceal this, the Palestinian Authority has
been spreading two falsehoods about the schoolbooks that have
unfortunately succeeded in deflecting international pressure for
change. PA Foreign Minister Nebil Shaath recently answered complaints
about the schoolbooks, saying that the PA has spent five years
rewriting the books, implying that the problems have been eliminated.
Then he added that Israel used the same old Jordanian books for
educating the local Arab population for 30 years, and therefore
has no valid complaint against the PA. Many European governments
have come to the PA's defense, citing these arguments.
The first truth about the PA schoolbooks is
that both new and old include anti-Semitic messages, de-legitimize
Israel's existence and incite to hatred and violence. Anti Semitism,
for example, is found openly in the new 6th grade book Reading
the Koran, as children read about Allah's warning to the Jews
that because of their evil Allah will kill them: ". . . Oh
you who are Jews . . . 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
. . ." [Reading the Koran, grade 6. p 20, 23, 78]. This religious-based
anti-Semitism is the most dangerous, as children are taught that
hating Jews is God's choice. And while not intending any criticizing
of Islam, it is very grave that although Islam has positive traditions
regarding Jews, the PA educators selected only hateful religious
traditions for inclusion in their schoolbooks.
The new PA schoolbooks teach that Israel has
no right to exist, de-legitimizing Israel as a foreign occupier,
like colonial Britain. "Colonialism: Palestine faced the
British occupation after the First World War in 1917, and the
Israeli occupation in 1948" [National Education, sixth grade,
p 16].
Since all of Israel is taught to be "occupied
territory", all of Israel's cities, regions and natural resources
are taught to be part of "Palestine". For example:
"Among the famous rocks of southern Palestine
are the rocks of Beersheba and the Negev," and "Palestine's
Water Sources—. . . The most important is the Sea of Galilee."
[Our Beautiful Language, grade 6, Part A, p 64, National Education,
sixth grade, pp 9-10]
Although, the Negev, Beersheba and the Sea of
Galilee are part of the State of Israel since its creation in
1948 PA children are taught these are "Palestine". Continuing
this ideology a book is cited dedicated to ". . . Palestinians,
so that they would remember their stolen homeland and work for
its salvation . . ." and it is referring, not to the disputed
territories, but all of Israel [Our Beautiful Language, sixth
grade, Part A, p 112].
Educating children not to recognize Israel's
existence is cemented through tens of maps in the schoolbooks
in which Palestine encompass all of Israel. Israel does not exist
on any map, within any borders. The PA defense of its schoolbook
map—that since there are no final borders the map is not
portraying modern Palestine but Mandatory Palestine—is an
insult to our intelligence. Are we expected to believe that when
Palestinian children see the map called "Palestine"
in all their schoolbooks, they imagine Britain a half a century
ago? And when Beersheba is called "Palestine", the children
are picturing Biblical history?
Another new book teaches what must be done for
"occupied Palestine" and the stolen homeland: "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 . . ." [Islamic Education, sixth grade,
Part A, p 68]
The complete and total 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 they, the children, have an obligation to liberate it even
if a centimeter is stolen.
All the above messages are found in new schoolbooks
written and published by the PA since 2000. The first claim, that
new PA books have fixed the problems, is thus flagrantly untrue.
However, half of the books still in use by the PA schools are
books they republish under the symbol of their own Ministry of
Education, that were written by Jordan. These books include the
following hate promotion:
"One must beware of the Jews, for they
are treacherous and disloyal."
[Islamic Education for Ninth Grade p 79, these
and below from CMIP report].
"I learn from this lesson: I believe that
the Jews are the enemies of the Prophets and the believers."
[Islamic Education, Part Two, for Fourth Grade p 67].
"Remember: The final and inevitable result
will be the victory of the Muslims over the Jews." [Our Arabic
Language for Fifth Grade p 67].
"The clearest examples of racist belief
and racial discrimination in the world are Nazism and Zionism.
[The New History of the Arabs and the World, p 123].
The continued inclusion of these hate teachings
in the PA school system, is inexcusable. The PA justification
that they were written by Jordan is of no importance. The child
learning that "Jews are the enemies of the Prophets and the
believers" learns that hatred of Jews is God's will, regardless
of who the writer was.
The second PA claim, that Israel used the same
old books is a falsehood. Indeed, Israel did use Jordanian books
to educate the local Arab population. However, Israel reprinted
the books without the hate education. In fact, Jordan registered
a complaint to the UN charging that Israel's changing the schoolbooks
was a violation of international law, but the UN checked what
Israel had done and approved it. The PA has put back into the
old Jordanian books all the hate education that Israel had removed.
Moreover, as early as three years ago, foreign
governments offered money to the PA to reprint these old books
without the hateful material. The PA turned down the money and
refused to reprint them using a variety of arguments. These hateful
Jordanian books are republished today, unedited by the PA by choice,
and the PA must stop passing responsibility onto others for the
hate content.
Finally, it should be stressed that all the
new books cited here were written during the most optimistic periods
of the peace process, before the violence began in September 2000.
They are not a reflection of the war, but the hatred they have
taught, is a paramount contributing factor to the war. The PA
is planting the seeds of the next war in their youth, and it is
incumbent upon those European governments who give political and
financial support to the PA, to demand the immediate expunging
of all hate material from PA schoolbooks. Indeed, the simple step
of conditioning all aid to the Palestinians on the elimination
of hatred from their schoolbooks would be one of the most important
steps that could be taken to promote peace in the Middle East
today.
Palestinian Media Watch
December 2003
| 
