PBC Radio Describes Death of an Infiltrator as “Having Died a Heroic Death”

Muhammad Abbas’s firing of three Gaza security officials has been seen by Western observers as one of several steps by Abbas, a.k.a. Abu Mazen to show he is fighting violence and calls to violence, but this has not been explained that way to the Palestinian listening audience by the official Palestinian Authority media, under the direct control of Abbas.

“Sawt Felasteen,” Voice of Palestine radio announced Friday morning that Abbas had “released three security officials from their posts” so that he could “put the Palestinian house in order” and “prevent taking the law into one’s hands.” This last point was reference to the murder inside a Gaza jail of three Palestinian inmates killed by armed men who broke into the jail to kill the prisoners.

The radio made no mention of the 45 mortar and rocket launchings that hit Israeli targets yesterday, prompting Israeli warnings of invasion and retaliation. The mortar attacks were launched by HAMAS after a Palestinian man was shot while trying to infiltrate an Israeli settlement Wednesday night.

Palestinian Authority-funded newspapers as well as the official Palestinian electronic media universally lauded the infiltrator as having “died a heroic death”, while continuing to describe Israeli actions as wanton brutality.

“The youth Ibrahim Fathi Abu Ghazar, 20 years of age, died a heroic martyr’s death at dawn today after being wounded last night by fire Israeli occupation forces in Rafah,” declared Voice of Palestine state radio in words that were echoed by the Al-Ayyam and Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda newspapers.

“Ibrahim Fathi Abu Ghazar-was martyred near Atzmona when he was attacked without reason,” declared official PA Television.

Dr. Michael Widlanski teaches political communication at the Rothberg School of Hebrew University. His doctorate, “Palestinian Broadcast Media In the Palestinian State-Building Process: Patterns of Influence and Control,” was based on eight years of research involving more than 7,000 hours of monitoring Palestinian radio in Arabic as well as television and newspaper surveys.