On the day of the massive bombing in Jerusalem–August 10, 2001–The Voice of Palestine opened its morning broadcasts at 7 a.m. with a 15-minute spotlight on Ali Joulani, the man who, 2 days earlier died while committing a terror attack in Tel Aviv. Joulani, 23, was lionized as a “shaheed,” or “martyr” in the cause against Zionists.

The V.O.P.–in a most unusual 15 segment–featured Joulani as the apotheosis of “istish-had”–an Arabic term that means both “martyrdom” and “heroic death against infidels.”

His drive-by shooting attack on everyone in sight near the Qirya military base in Tel Aviv (he drove off the main Ayalon Freeway near the main shopping mall) and began sooting up Kaplan Street, wounding several men and women, mostly unarmed soldiers.

The Voice of Palestine condemned Israel for not immediately turning over “the martyr’s body” to Palestinian control for a hero’s burial.

Seven hours later, the huge suicide bombing occurred (at 2 p.m. Jerusalem time), and at the first opportunity, The V.O.P. announced (3 p.m.) that “it is not clear if the explosion is a heroic martyr operation or an accident.”, in language putting blame on Israel and demanding that Israel seek a ceasefire.

Yet the “denunciation” or “condemnation” was very very circumspect and not (repeat NOT) offered in Arafat’s voice.

In fact, during its first full news round-up at 9 p.m., the headlines did not even mention the “istinkar” (condemnation) but only in the body of the ninth news item.

The next day’s main news show (7 a.m.) opened with a stirring Palestinian condemnation (“the Palestinian Authority strongly condemns [Arabic: adanat b’shidda] only the Israeli aggression at Orient House”) regarding Israel’s closure of the illegal Palestinian operations in Jerusalem’s Orient House.

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