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Fourth Graders enact suicide bombers in Palestinian Authority school

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – In a rally by Islamic militants, fourth-graders acted out a suicide bombing yesterday as adults threatened Israel with new attacks and Israeli troops killed another Palestinian teenager.

Boys waving assault rifles rode on their fathers’ shoulders in a West Bank march.

And in another “Day of Rage” against Israel, Palestinian children took centre stage, prompting warnings by psychologists about lasting damage, but no public outcry.

The role of Palestinian children in six months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting has been hotly debated. Israel says Palestinians send them to the front lines of protest to win the world’s sympathy. The Palestinians say Israeli troops have used excessive force against demonstrators, regardless of their age.

Of 352 Palestinians killed since late September, 66 were under age 18; 57 Israeli Jews and 19 others have also died in the fighting. Of the more than 10,000 Palestinians injured, nearly 2,000 were minors.

Yesterday, a 17-year-old was killed by Israeli fire in stone-throwing clashes at the Karni crossing between Gaza and Israel. The army said he had broken away from a group of stone throwers and approached an army post in a way that “appeared dangerous” to soldiers.

The militant Islamic Jihad group yesterday staged a memorial rally for three children of families linked to the movement who have been killed in clashes in recent months. One of the victims was a 13-year-old boy, Mohammed Hales.

In the highlight of the rally, 15 children – all younger than 10 – staged a play about a suicide bombing in Israel, with the coaching of the adults.

A boy was dressed as a suicide bomber. He wore a black face mask and a green robe and had a little package wrapped in tinfoil strapped to his belt, meant to symbolize explosives. His voice muffled by the mask, he led the children in chanting, “We die for the sake of God.”

Another boy slipped into a cardboard box with an Israeli flag on it and lay on the ground symbolizing the aftermath of a suicide bombing.

In another part of the program, a young girl listened to fiery speeches, her light brown curls brushing against a pistol. And a girl whose narrow face was overwhelmed by a white head scarf shouted into a microphone: “Raise the flag of Holy War.”

Islamic Jihad leader Abdullah Shami defended putting children on the stage. “The Islamic nation and the Palestinian nation, from the small children to the old men, are ready to sacrifice for this land,” he said.

In the West Bank town of Nablus, during a rally attended by 2,500 people, assault rifles were pressed into the hands of several children who were then hoisted onto their fathers’ shoulders.

Fadel Abu Hein, a child psychologist in Gaza, said participation in such demonstrations can rob children of hope. “It instills fear,” Abu Hein said. “It makes them more aggressive.”

The Israeli government, meanwhile, announced a slight easing of its ban on Palestinians traveling to Israel. Israel said it would grant entry permits to 500 Palestinian business people, and that it had opened the Allenby Bridge crossing between the West Bank and Jordan to Palestinian travellers.

This ran on the AP wire on March 17, 2001

Even Palestinian crossword puzzles reject Israel

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
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Question: What is the well-known port city of Palestine?

If you answered “Gaza,” you’d be wrong – it’s Haifa, according to crossword puzzles that appear in Palestinian media sources routinely enjoyed by Palestinians of all ages, including children. In fact, going by the clues these puzzles offer, there is no Israel at all – from Metulla to Eilat, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, with the eternal united capital of Al-Quds (Jerusalem), it’s all Palestine.

The normally innocuous medium of crossword puzzles seems to have become just one more battleground in the long struggle between Israel and the Palestinians, according to a report released yesterday by Palestinian Media Watch. The puzzles which appear, notes the report, are full of rejectionist and antisemitic “clues” – and not only since the outbreak of the “Aksa intifada.”

“It is important to note that these problematic ‘messages’ are not published in the Palestinian Authority newspapers in the aftermath of violence or during times of particular tension in the Israeli-Palestinian relationship,” reads the report. “Rather, these have appeared over the past number of years as a routine part of Palestinian culture and amusement, reflecting normative Palestinian thinking and expectations.”

The report cites numerous clues with a deeply antagonistic message against Jews and Israel, including identifying Yad Vashem as “commemorating the Holocaust and the lies,” the Jewish trait as “treachery,” and Jerusalem as “the Palestinian capital from the dawn of history until eternity.”

Moreover, with the exception of Tel Aviv and its immediate environs, every major city and geographical feature in Israel is identified as Palestinian. This includes numerous references to Lod, Safed, and Jerusalem as “occupied” by the Israelis, as well as including Ashkelon, Jaffa, Acre, Caesarea, Haifa, and geographical features such as Lake Kinneret, Mount Meron, and the Negev desert in the same category.

“We have observed this taking place since we started following the Palestinian media some five years ago,” said Itamar Marcus, director of the organization. “This cultural expression is in many ways more significant than the statements of Palestinian leaders, since it makes us aware of the deep beliefs of the Palestinians. In all the crossword puzzles we’ve seen, we’ve never found reference to any place in Israel as Israeli. Every place is called Palestine.

“This isn’t incitement.. it is an honest expression of beliefs.”

Marcus, who intends to extend the Watch’s study to all aspects of cultural expression reflected in the media, criticized Israel’s leaders for ignoring a growing process of radicalization of Palestinian opinion. “I think all the Israeli governments have made a tremendous mistake in ignoring what has been called incitement for all these years,” said Marcus. “By now, it’s no longer incitement – it has been absorbed and adopted, and it now forms a large part of the Palestinian national consciousness. In many respects, we are much further from peace between the people than we were before the signing of the Oslo accords.”

This ran in the Jerusalem Post on March 15, 2001

Where has All of Israel Gone?

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
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At one or two shops in the Old City of Jerusalem and tourist sites in areas ruled by the Palestinian Authority, people can pick up a map entitled “Palestine, the Holy Land Tourist Map”.

Published by the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the large glossy map provides a detailed look at Palestinian cities, towns, villages, as well as holy places and refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

While the map is no doubt a valuable tool for those wishing to explore the deeper recesses of the Palestinian territories, it won?t help tourists wishing to explore Israel.

That?s because, according this map, there is no Israel.

Whereas the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem are brimming with detail where to find museums, zoos, gas stations, recreation sites, the land recognized as Israel by the international community appears as mostly blank space criss-crossed by highways.

A handful of Israeli cities (Netanya, Tel Aviv/Jaffa, Ashdod, Ramla), which were built on or near pre-1948 Arab villages, are shown, but without any references to museums and so forth. The word “Israel” is conspicuously absent.

This despite the fact that the map was financed by the United Nations Development Program/Program of Assistance to the Palestinian People.

Rabbi David Rosen, director of the Israel office of the Anti-Defamation League, first learned of the map and its funding in early February, when David Bedein, a Jerusalem journalist who specializes in the actions of the Palestinian Authority, brought it to his attention.

“I think it’s deplorable that a UN organization should be supporting such a partisan political propaganda”, Rabbi Rosen says. “In portraying the area between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River as only ‘Palestine’ and eliminating all reference to Israel is thus implicitly advocating an anti-Israel policy”.

Emanuel Nachshon, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, says that his office began receiving complaints about the map four or five months ago.

“Individuals saw it at tourist sites and let us know about it”, Nachshon says. “We think it’s extremely inappropriate that such a map should be published. We see it as part of the wider Palestinian efforts to negate Israel, just like the recent decree by the Mufti of Jerusalem saying that the Jews have nothing to do with the Western Wall”.

Despite the government’s disgust over the map, Nachshon does not believe that it has, or will, take any action to squelch it.

“Look”, he says, “given the depth of the Palestinian violence that we have witnessed during the past months, the issue of the map is just a small aspect of the wider spectrum of problems we have to deal with. Before we establish a dialogue over a map, there are burning issues of terrorism and violence we need to deal with”.

Nachshon refuses to say whether Israel intends to take up the matter with the UNDP, which funds a variety of humanitarian and development programs in the Palestinian Authority.

“I don’t wish to comment on that. It’s a map issued by the Palestinians,? he said.

Bedein, the director of a media center that specializes in uncovering Palestinian corruption and anti-Israel propaganda, is incensed by the Israeli government’s laissez-faire attitude.

“This map and the maps in Palestinian textbooks are a rally point for the Palestinians”,he asserts. “I know how they affect the Palestinian people and their view of things. By printing the tourist map in English, the Palestinians are telling tourists, It’s all ours. It’s part of a terror culture, a culture that says that none of Palestine belongs to Israel”.

Officials in the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism deny any implicit or explicit political agenda.

“We printed a tourist map, not a political map”, insists Palestinian Tourism Minister Mitri Abu Aita. “We don’t show official borders and we don?t mention our official neighbors. We just show places in Palestine, a destination for tourism”.

Aita’s voice becomes strained when it is pointed out that the map does indeed mention Egypt and Jordan, as well as the international boundary,? and the armistice line of 1949. He does not reply when asked why a smaller map of the Old City of Jerusalem shows mosques and churches but no synagogues or the Western Wall.

“We must leave politics to the politicians”, he says finally.

Bajis Ismail, the Palestinian tourism ministry’s director general, asks this reporter to ask Israel whether they mention Palestinian areas on their maps. “They don’t identify the line between Israel and the Palestinian areas”.

David Bedein disputes this.

In February 2000, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism published a map clearly showing areas A and B of the Palestinian Authority. Reading the text in a corner of the map, he says, “In area A, the Palestinians have responsibility for civil affairs, internal security and public order. This area is marked in gray, and area B is in yellow”.

Ismail insists that the UNDP only funded the Palestinian map but had no input in its production.

“They are not responsible for the text. They are responsible only for supporting the project financial. It’s not a crime”, he says.

Perhaps not a crime, but most certainly an embarrassment.

In response to the question of how a map of the “Holy Land” funded by the UN could fail to include Israel, Willi Scholl, deputy director the UNDP?s office in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, says, “this was obviously a very unfortunate oversight. It’s obviously a mistake that it was not put in.?

He stresses that his agency didn’t prepare the map. “We didn’t edit it. Our contribution was financial, not intellectual”.

Scholl insists time and again that the UN always puts a disclaimer on its projects stating that the contents do not imply an endorsement in the political sense. “Given the nature of our development program”,he says, “we don’t have any stance on any political issues, especially regarding the Palestinian territories and Israel”.

“The tourism map does not carry this disclaimer”, he acknowledges.

Scholl could not say whether the UNDP would demand the map’s removal from travel kiosks and shops, or whether his own office would stop stocking it.

We will have to sit down with the [Palestinian tourism] minister and tell him we have our misgivings because Israel is not on the map,he says. He adds, however, that “I really can’t see what we can do unless they opt us into the map’s editing team”.

To this Bedein responds, “no dice. They took credit for publishing that map, put up the money to make it and they distribute it”.

He hopes that the incoming foreign minister will do more to hold the Palestinians responsible for their actions. Until that happens, the journalist says, “people should start raising the question of why the UN is publishing maps obliterating Israel?”

This ran on March 3, 2001 in the “Jewish Week”, the newspaper of the Jewish Federation of New York

Arafat’s Corruption: the Source of Palestinian Suffering?

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
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According to surveys by the research center of the Israeli Yad Tabenkin, the West Bank per capita gross domestic product (GDP) before the Oslo accord in 1993 was approximately $3,500, and in Gaza, about $2,800. Now, the per capita GDP for both territories is around $1,300. And U.N. Envoy Terje Roed-Larsen says that 30 percent of the Palestinian people live on less than $2.10 a day.

Before Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) entered the territories in May of 1994, the Palestinian per capita GDP in the West Bank was about 40 percent of the $8,000 Israeli per capita GDP for the same period, and in the 1990s, the economic development of the West Bank exceeded that of Israel. If that trend would have been allowed to continue, the West Bank’s GDP would have reached at least $7,000 by now, similar to Saudi Arabia, and 700 percent higher than the average in other oil-devoid Arab states such as Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Morocco.

In 1990, the CIA estimated that the PLO had between $8 billion to $14 billion worth of assets generated from 5 percent tax on every Palestinian working in Arab countries. However, according to a 1993 British National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) report published on the eve of the famous “hand shake” on the White House lawn, most of the PLO’s assets originated from “donations, extortion, payoffs, illegal arms dealing, drug trafficking, money laundering, fraud, etc.” A General Accounting Office (GAO) investigation of Mr. Arafat in November 1995 was kept secret, due to “national security interest.”

Subsequent to the “hand shake” on the White House lawn on September 1993, Mr. Arafat received at least $3 billion more from the United States and the international donor community, again, without any serious demand for accountability. The present condition of the Palestinians in the territories is a grim affirmation that becoming the official leader of the Palestinian people did nothing to change Mr. Arafat’s old habits.

Shortly after the current Intifada began, Arab donor countries pledged to give $1 billion to the Palestinian Authority to ease the economic hardship of the Palestinian people. However, the Arab donors’ past experience with money given to Mr. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority prompted them to demand, according to reports in Ha’aretz, the Israeli daily, that “Chairman Arafat show complete transparency in the funds” and a detailed report on how it was spent. Mr. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority declined to comply,and the Arab donors suspended the transfer of the money “for fear that the money will end up in the wrong pockets.”

The rapidly growing, very visible social disparity in the territories rows of ostentatious villas and late model Mercedes-Benz automobiles for Mr. Arafat’s cronies while most Palestinians live in dismal conditions began to threaten Mr. Arafat’s leadership. Igniting another Intifada enabled Mr. Arafat to redefine the economic decline in the territories as “sacrifices” to mobilize against the “zionist enemy,” while blaming the victim of the violence, Israel.

In 1994, British National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) sources asserted that following Oslo, the PLO’s illegal activities actually increased. No Robin Hood, Mr. Arafat kept the loot for himself and his cronies, hiding large amounts of money in Swiss and other secret bank accounts, and making large investments in real estate and industry all over the world. At the same time he has done nothing to improve the living conditions of the Palestinians he allegedly collected the money for. Never having to account for the billions he had stolen, he continues to claim poverty.

Now the cat is out of the bag: The Palestinian Authority has admitted that the current Intifada was planned in detail last July following the failed Camp David Summit. Imad Faluji, the Palestinian Authority’s communications minister, told a PLO rally in the Ein Hilwe refugee camp in South Lebanon last Friday that, as part of that plan, all the PLO “military action groups of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s are returning to work to escalate the fighting against Israel.”

Mr. Arafat has successfully claimed that Israel causes the economic hardship suffered by the Palestinian people. These claims are based on two fundamentally false assumptions: One, that Israel, rather than Mr. Arafat’s misgovernance and corruption, is responsible for the economic collapse; and, two, that on some level, there is still some hope or belief that the disingenuous behavior Mr. Arafat and the PLO’s leadership is a result of pressure from the street resulting from lack of tangible gains to the average Palestinian rather than Mr. Arafat’s intentions and a reflection of his bad faith in entering the Oslo process in 1993, that led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority.

Mr. Arafat’s past is a good indication that he will continue to use terror and corruption to stay in power. He does not want to give peace a chance because in peacetime the Palestinians working in Israel will earn many times over those working under Mr. Arafat’s corrupt leadership in the West Bank,and especially in Gaza, where they will continue to earn a pittance. This will lead, as it already has, to demands to end corruption, thus, threatening Mr. Arafat’s regime.

That, more than anything else, explains the failure of “the peace process” wherein the Barak government made unprecedented concessions that Mr. Arafat failed to accept as a compromise to end the conflict. And it is why any attempt by the Bush administration to pick up the pieces of the failed effort appear, at best, extremely difficult.

This article appeared on March 15, 2001 in the Washington Times. The author directs the New York-based Center for the study of corruption and rule of law.

Official Palestinian Radio News: The Voice of Palestine (V.O.P.) March.8th. Official PLO Denial of Contacts with the Sharon Government

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
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Summary and Analysis V.O.P. went out of its way to deny or to discount various reports on Israeli state radio and television that supposedly indicated the Sharon Government’s reaching out for contacts with the Palestinian Authority. In its 9 p.m. Thursday night news round-up V.O.P. quoted Jibril Rajoub, PA West Bank counter-intelligence head, and Marwan Barghouti, Fatah West Bank secretary, in a categorical denial of Israeli State TV’s report that they had held a meeting with Israeli Shin Bet (a.k.a. Shabak or G.S.S.) head Avi Dichter.

“No such meeting was held, nor will it be held,” said Rajoub, calling the report a lie.

Similarly, V.O.P. made no mention whatsoever of supposed greetings sent by Yasser Arafat to Ariel Sharon, as was reported for several hours by Voice of Israel radio. But in its final broadcast of Thursday (midnight Thursday/Friday), V.O.P. said Arafat had received an answer to his letter to Sharon.

Fatah secretary Barghouti also featured prominently in another report on the meeting between Fatah heads and European consuls in Ramallah. Barghouti was quoted as saying that peace was “a strategic choice” by the Palestinians, but that peace had to put an end to settlements and occupation as well as restoring all Palestinian rights. Barghouti called on Europe to take a greater role in the peace process because America was not doing enough.

Throughout the day, several PA ministers and high officials took a tough stance against the Sharon government, especially Arafat’s own spokesman, Nabil Abu-Irdeineh, who said Israel had to choose between a military solution or negotiations based on international legitimacy (UN resolutions) and previous positions staked out by the Barak government.

For example, PA Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nabil Amr said Sharon’s opening speech in the Knesset was full of threatening elements. Minister Amr said “the Tel Aviv government” headed by Sharon had to implement the registered agreements, including the one at Sharm al-Sheikh by immediately ending the siege and the aggression against the Palestinians, instead of demanding “an end to what he calls violence.”

PA Information Minister Yasser Abd-Rabbo said Sharon’s speech was an attempt to justify continued settlement and Occupation.

V.O.P. focused on what it said was the takeover of a house in the Old City by “Jewish extremists,” which was “part of Israel’s Judaization of Jerusalem.” It also reported that Israeli settlers had established six new mobile homes near Kafr Yabd in the Jenin district.

In addition, the tone of V.O.P. broadcasts detailing Israeli-Palestinian clashes is now focusing intense hatred at the settlements themselves as the source of Israeli “aggression” both physically and morally. In other words, in almost all descriptions-which begin with very general headlines (e.g.”Israel continues its aggression in various parts of the homeland”)-the settlements are depicted as land-grabbing pirates who inflict harm against innocent Palestinian civilians. The settlements are the source and the cause of Israeli artillery and heavy automatic weapons fire. Even if and when there is a fall-off in military activity (as when only one or two people are wounded in a 24-hour period), V.O.P. continues to use lurid and general headlines portraying a sense of escalating bloodshed and catastrophic economic conditions.

V.O.P. used “Woman’s Day” as a platform to honor the role of Palestinian women in the Intifada, particularly as martyrs.

Thursday Morning Round-up Headlines

  • “Today march 8 is International Woman’s Day;
  • Extremist Jews take over house in the Old city of holy Jerusalem;
  • Israel continues using its army and its settlers in aggression against our people in various locations in the homeland;
  • Israeli government holding ceremonies for new ministers;
  • Arab and international reactions to the formation of the new Israeli government;
  • The European representative to the Middle East holds talks in Amman with Jordanian prime minister;
  • American secretary of state Colin Powell says that the reappraisal of the sanctions against Iraq does not mean an easing of the sanctions that have been in place for ten years.”

Quotes from Item on Woman’s Day, V.O.P. morning broadcast

“Special blessings from the Voice of Palestine to Palestinian women on the occasion of International Woman’s Day, for attaining national goals and social goals and for sacrificing as martyrs and as mothers of martyrs, (mothers of) prisoners and wounded. And blessings to men in the jails who will soon be liberated. And do not think that women were not targets for the bullets of the Occupation. The martyr Aida Fathiyya (43-year-old mother killed this week near Ramallah) was a target for the occupiers in the settlement of Psagot-she who was the other of three children at the time she came back from buying things for the holiday.”

“With the Help of Allah, You Will Reach Jerusalem”

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

In an interview with Palestinian television about two months ago, the new Israeli government minister Salah Tarif said he regrets that the Druze serve in the IDF and fight “their brothers.”

Tarif called upon Israel to release all the “Palestinian prisoners,” and added that he wishes good health to Hamas’s spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin.

Of prime minister elect Ariel Sharon who appointed him as a minister in his cabinet, he said: “Will the person who defiled the el-Aksa Mosque rule once again?”

The Israeli research institution “Palestinian Media Watch,” which monitors broadcasts in the Palestinian media in the territories gave Yedioth Ahronoth a copy of a tape of the interview which was aired on January 23.

In the interview,Tarif also said: “If Israel does not put an end to the conflict by establishing a Palestinian state, then the Druze Arab community will not have no choice but to reassess the situation and take a brave stand, no matter the price.”

As to the Druze serving in the IDF, Tarif said: “Unfortunately the Druze soldiers are recruited by law and not by choice. Unfortunately there are others who volunteer.” He also addressed the chief of staff: “Why are you sending Druze and Bedouin soldiers to the lines of confrontation with the Palestinians? We do not want to be a part of the provocation.”

Tarif even boasted: “I am responsible for every unit with Druze in it that was taken out of the confrontation line with our Palestinian brothers.”

Tarif also addressed the Palestinian people and said with regard to the riots: “I am certain that this great sacrifice, with the help of Allah, will lead to the establishment of the State of Palestine, to Jerusalem and to el-Aksa.”

Besides the harsh criticism he directed at Sharon, Tarif called several people who are currently sitting around the cabinet table with him, such as Tzahi Hanegbi, “right wing fascists.” Minister Tarif said yesterday in response: “I would never in my life say such things. It is simply outrageous that anyone thinks I could say such a thing.”

It should be noted that Yedioth Ahronoth has a tape of the interview.

Salah Tarif, the first non-Jewish minister in the history of the State of Israel was sworn in as minister yesterday with mixed emotions. On the one hand, he feels pride at the historic moment, and on the other, he is concerned over serving as a minister in a government headed by Ariel Sharon. “If heaven forbid, there should be a deterioration, I will be in a very awkward position,” Tarif said yesterday.

Official Palestinian Radio News: The Voice of Palestine (V.O.P.) March.5th. The PLO Non-Reaction to the Netanya Bombing

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

Summary and Analysis The Voice of Palestine began its special Feast of Sacrifice (‘Eid al-Adha) programming with prayers and sermon from the Al-Aqsa, including a call from the mosque sheikh “to liberate Jerusalem” and to support Iraq in its struggle against the United States.

In a somewhat unusual move, V.O.P. quoted from the highlights of the mosque speech throughout the day, noting the Sheikh “called for a continuation of the struggle and the holy war” (Arabic: nidal and jihad).

No Palestinian official commented, condemned or even signaled disapproval of the bomb attack inside Netanya yesterday, and there was no call for restraint in any shape or form.

But in a very interesting development, during a special edition of the morning dialogue show hosted by senior PA commentator Youssef al-Kazaz, the V.O.P. raised the question that many outside the PA are talking about the imminent collapse of the PA. The idea was dismissed by PA Minister Nabil Amr, but the very fact that the issue was raised-and by a commentator who is sycophantically tied to Arafat-means that the PA wanted the question raised and dismissed.

Why? It wanted the issue dismissed for the home Palestinian audience which it needs to believe that Arafat is in control. But it also could not ignore that the issue has been raised by the “Peace Camp” in Israel and by many European observers (perhaps after being briefed by the PA). Indeed, the PA may have wanted the issue raised out of a “weakness is strength” view.

The PA faces imminent collapse unless it does two things:

  • It lets the PA off the hook of responsibility for violence emanating from PA territory;
  • And it puts pressure on Israel to ease up on economic pressure and to shelve possible military escalations, while increasing pressure for international intervention for and “protection” of the Palestinians.

Monday Morning Headlines: Feast of Sacrifice, March 5, 8:00 a.m.

  • “A martyr in Jenin welcomes (greets) the first day of the Feast. The martyr is Osama Ibrahim ‘Id;
  • Thousands brave the siege and attend the Feast prayers in the holy Al-Aqsa mosque;
  • “His Excellency says fate will bring Palestinian flags atop the mosques and churches of Jerusalem despite Israeli aggression;
  • The National and Islamic forces call for setting aside the Feast days for visiting the graves and families of the martyrs;
  • Occupation forces have cordoned off the village of Rafat, keeping it under curfew for the last eight days;
  • In Israeli maneuvers, there are increased road blocks on the routes;
  • Sharon backs not transferring funds owed by Israel to the National Authority, and presents his government to the Knesset his Wednesday.”

Quote of the Day

“We celebrate with you the opening day of the Feast, though the tyrannical Occupation presses its ugly imprint on everything Palestinian.” (Jamal Miari, V.O.P. anchorman, 8:05 a.m., in lead-in from morning news headlines to the news in detail)

Quote from live statement by Yasser Arafat in “stake-out” after mosque prayers in Gaza:

“On this occasion of the Feast, Palestine, the Arab nation, the Muslim nation, (we say) this (Palestinian) people, despite the siege and the dangerous military escalation and these circumstances and confrontations we will continue until Palestinian flags fly atop the mosques and churches of Jerusalem, and they will be seen from afar.”

Quotes from Monday Morning Feast Commentary, Youssef al-Kazaz, Senior V.O.P. Commentator

“The Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation congratulates His Excellency President Yasser Arafat on the occasion of the Feast of the Sacrifice. And may God grant our Arab and Muslim peoples goodness and blessings, and may the Palestinian people realize their rights-freedom, independence and the return (of the refugees), as well as the establishment of their state with holy Jerusalem as its capital. We at Palestinian Broadcasting call for the grace of God for our martyrs and for his healing for the wounded and for freedom for our prisoners. And our Palestinian people will continue their glorious intifada in the face of unprecedented escalation by the Israeli Occupation and its settlers against our people. We will always remember our martyrs who sacrificed themselves for us, defending this homeland, Palestine, this homeland of the birth (of Jesus) and the night journey (of Muhammad). They fell in the path of freedom and independence. May God grant that by the next Feast we have realized our goals, liberating the land, establishing an independent Palestinian state with holy Jerusalem as its capital under the leadership of His Excellency President Yasser Arafat, president of the state of Palestine.”

Interview with PA Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nabil Amr

Question: “Professor Nabil, what do you say about all the talk in international and Arab circles about the collapse of the (Palestinian) National Authority?”

Answer: “There are many causes for the talk in this direction. There are some who would like to see that day. One has to remember that the National Authority is not a traditional organization or a typical construction which can be pressed to collapse. It has faced many pressures since the establishment of the PLO. There are those who are afraid such a collapse would lead to great explosion in many places. But the truth is that whatever the difficult circumstances, the collapse that some are waiting for is not in the offing. “

Question: “Anything that happens inside the Green Line, Israel blames President Yasser Arafat.”

Answer: “Well, brother Youssef, the charge the Israelis throw at Yasser Arafat or the National Authority is the best indication, the strongest indication of Israeli weakness, the weakness of their security might. We say the Israelis are choosing an impossible solution to the security matter and that is the military solution. They are trying to put the entire police in the streets. This state that considers itself the most important state, the most powerful in the Middle East believes its security lies in the hands of Yasser Arafat.”

12 Noon News Bulletin Headlines

  • “After the Feast prayers, thousands accompany to burial the exalted martyr Osama Ibrahim Id, 23, from the Jenin Camp who fell early today before Occupation bullets during a heavy bombardment of populated neighborhoods;
  • His Excellency President Yasser Arafat asserts that our people are ready to continue with their fate until our flags fly over the mosques and churches of holy Jerusalem, the capital of the independent state. His excellency’s remarks came in response to reporters’ questions after he attended the Feast prayers in the Mosque of the Martyr Abu Jihad (a.k.a. Khalil al-Wazir, Arafat’s late military deputy, killed by Israel) in the Sheikh Ijleen neighborhood of Gaza, where the mosque sermon speaker, Dr. Muhammad Nijm called for re-doubling efforts for the sak Thousands attended the Feast prayers in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the sermon speaker in Al Aqsa, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein strongly criticized the tyrannical Israeli siege on Palestinian cities, towns and villages and camps. And the sermon giver said the siege and the oppression would not prevent our people from continuing their struggle (nidal) and holy war (jihad) to free their land and to establish an independent Palestinian state with holy Jerusalem as its capital;
  • More than a million passed by Mount Arafat last night to Wadi Mina (part of the Haj pilgrimage route) near holy Mecca.;
  • Feisal Husseini, holder of the Jerusalem portfolio (in the PLO) asserts that the Palestinian intifada against the Israeli occupation is the expression of a political choice aimed at ending the occupation and sweeping it from our occupied land. Husseini called on our people to continue its resistance;
  • Two citizens wounded, one seriously, in Khan Yunis from Occupation fire;
  • Occupation forces burst in into mosque in Rafat village during Feast prayers and attack worshipers;
  • Ariel Sharon will present his government in the Knesset on Wednesday.”

Monday Evening Headlines, March 5

  • “Occupation forces continue their aggression and wound a citizen;
  • National security forces urge citizens to report any artillery bombardments using bombs or bullets by the Occupation;
  • His Excellency President Yasser Arafat receives a second letter from American president and his secretary of state;
  • The Likud finalizes is efforts to form a government, and it will present it to the Knesset tomorrow;
  • Iraqi missile forces fire on American and British planes.”

Official Palestinian Radio News: The Voice of Palestine (V.O.P.) March 6th

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

Summary and Analysis

On the second day of the Feast of the Sacrifice, V.O.P. gave slight news coverage and interviewing, but expanded generally on several themes it has been broaching recently:

  • broad condemnations of Israeli war crimes;
  • firm support for Iraq versus the United States;
  • a somewhat clumsy cover-up of recent Palestinian statements (e.g. Communications Minister Imad Falouji speaking ‘Ein Hilweh Camp in Lebanon) that the Intifada was a planned war with specific political goals, and not a spontaneous outpouring of wrath against Ariel Sharon for “polluting” Islamic shrines on September 28, 2000.

In its news reports, V.O.P. concentrated on Israeli-imposed curfews, fire and searches in the Ramallah, Jenin and Khan Yunis areas.

Tuesday Morning 8 a.m. Holiday Round-up Headlines

  • “The Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Ikrema al-Sabry stressed in an interview with Egyptian news agency-Al-Sharq al-Awsat-that the Palestinians will stubbornly fulfill (their goals) in the Intifada despite the sacrifices;
  • The Minister of Communications Mails, Engineer Imad Falouji, denies what was ascribed to him by the media, that is, that the Palestinian National Authority planned the outbreak of the Intifada. He described this story as outrageous (i.e. “chutzpah”) and said that the National Authority like the Palestinian people was not surprised by the outbreak of the Intifada because of Israeli policies and the continuing violation of registered agreements;
  • The director of the UN’s refugee organization UNRWA, Peter Hansen, warns of the worsening situation of the Palestinian refugees, and he says that their situation (i.e. the refugees) is worse after five months of Intifada than it was after seven years of the first Intifada (i.e. 1987/8) (Note: the first Intifada did not last seven years);
  • The Israeli Gesher Party refused to join the new Likud government.;
  • The United States decides to contribute 14-million dollars to the Iraqi Opposition as part of the American plan to strengthen the opposition against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein;
  • Russia denies testing a nuclear weapons.”

Tuesday Morning Headlines 7 a.m. / 8 a.m. / 9 a.m.

  • “Occupation forces impose curfew on Al-‘Aroub Refugee Camp in Hebron district after bombarding it with heavy automatic fire, and they are bulldozing lands in Khan Yunis, while imposing a reinforced closure on Jenin. All this even as the village of Rafat remains under closure and curfew for ten days;
  • The Minister of communication and Mails places the blame for existential tensions on Israel, while the Jerusalem Mufti stresses that the Intifada will continue despite the sacrifices;
  • UNRWA representative issues a warning
  • -Ariel Sharon has revealed his majority and will tomorrow present his government for a confidence vote;
  • The vice president of the United States underwent surgery, and a chain of shooting continues in the schools of America, reviving re-examination after two students were killed in other events.”

Official Palestinian Radio News: The Voice of Palestine (V.O.P.) March 4th. Preparing for the Feast of Sacrifices and Reacting to Netanya Attack

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

The Voice of Palestine has been gearing up to the Feast of Sacrifice Monday. There were live interviews from the pilgrimage site in Arabia, and there has been a general increase in the Islamic tone of some of the broadcasts as well as the strong return of songs about martyrdom. Just minutes before its 10 a.m. coverage of the Netanya market bombing V.O.P. ran two such songs (about 40 minutes after the bombing).

The coverage of the attack was detailed and spare at the same time: numbers of dead and wounded were given, but incident was described as an explosion, not an attack, and it was neither condemned nor lauded.

At 12-noon, V.O.P. opened with reports of a statement by the PA rejecting any Israeli attempts to pin the blame for the Netanya incident on the PA. The report quoted Yasser Arafat’s personal spokesman Nabil Abu-Irdeineh as saying that Israel had only itself to blame for continuing confrontations.

(This line of analysis was almost identical to reported comments elsewhere of HAMAS official Mahmoud Rantisi, though in later reports, Abu-Irdeineh’s comments were softened a bit.)

A little later in the noon broadcast, V.O.P. announced that Civilian Affairs Minister Jamil Tarifi said there was no point in conducting negotiations with the new Israeli government at this time. (This details with comments by PA Minister of Information Yasser Abd-Rabbo on Friday that there were no real contacts between the PA and Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon.)

Throughout the morning, V.O.P. featured comments by PA Legislative Speaker Ahmad Qreia said the statements by Israeli chief of staff Shaul Mofaz were replete with danger and had to be discussed by the upcoming Arab summit “because their danger was not confined to the borders of Palestine or Lebanon or Syria which are exposed to Israeli aggression, but constitute a danger to the region as a whole.” Qreia called on the Arab summit to send a clear message to the Israeli government (Note: by that time there will be a new Israeli government) that it was “playing a dangerous game.”

Qreia, who seemed to be pushing the new militant pan-Arab line of the PA, also criticized the new Bush Administration for taking its time in developing a Middle East policy.

During the morning reports, the V.O.P. Ramallah correspondent, Rashid Hilal, regularly referred to the settlers of Psagot as “mujrimu Psagot”-“The criminals of Psagot”-another example of the PA and V.O.P. basically putting a bounty on the settlers’ heads by declaring them outlaws. The morning anchorman, Samir Interr introduced almost all the local reports by referring to the “crimes” of the Israelis.

Netanya Bombing Reaction

News of the Sunday morning bombing in Netanya was first broadcast on V.O.P. as the opening item at its regular 10 a.m. hourly news bulletin, a little less than an hour after the bombing.

The report was detailed and un-sensational: there was neither celebration nor condemnation of the explosion, which was not called attack but was also not called a traffic accident.

“Two Israelis were killed and 35 were wounded-two of them critically-in an explosion that took place in the middle of Netanya. Israeli press sources said the explosion took place near the main bus station in Netanya near the Netanya market.”

The report went on to note that Israeli forces were searching the area and that Israeli army units had been mobilized along the Green Line anyway in advance of the Muslim feast of sacrifice. V.O.P. also noted that Israel was using helicopters and “new electronic equipment” to try and stop infiltration and terror [note: it appears that a V.O.P. news editor was dropping a subtle hint here that all this Israeli hi-tech would not defeat determined Palestinian low-tech].

Sunday Morning Round-up Headlines

  • “It is the eve of the blessed Feast of the Sacrifice.and the Israeli occupation forces continue with their massacres, Ai’dah Iftah, 43 years old, tried to bring the joy of the Feast (where fighting was intense) to her children who were dressed up for the festival, but her attempt failed, and she was assassinated, her children taken from her. (Note: this is the lyric account of the death of the 43-year-old mother in El-Bireh).. The spectacle continues and has not stopped since the beginning of Israeli occupation crimes, and in Nablus, the occupation assassinated two more citizens in Hiwara and Karyut. And the Israeli Occupation Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz threatens an increase in escalation and crimes up to the occupation of the liberated Palestinian cities.;
  • More than a million pilgrims (haj) will make the circuit around Mount Arafat today.one of the pillars of Islam;
  • Sheikh Ikrema al-Sabry, the mufti, congratulates the Arab and Islamic populations on the Feast, and he warns of the chain of Israeli massacres carried out against the rights of our people;
  • Father Attalah Hana in the name of the Orthodox Church in Jerusalem congratulates calls on the Free World to save the Palestinians from the chain of massacres which do not distinguish between young and old, man or woman, Muslim or Christian;
  • Occupation measures continue even during the Feast, including the closure of all crossing points and the locking-down of all movments;
  • Civilian Affairs Minister Jamil Tarifi says he does not expect a change in the measures.”

Sunday Morning Headlines, 7 a.m. / 8 a.m. / 9 a.m.

  • “Three martyrs joined the family of Intifada martyrs last night. And the martyrs are Aida Fathiyya, 43 years old, from El-Bireh, the martyr Maher Shafiq Mahmoud Ode, 20, from Hiwara, and the martyr Ahmad Hasan Alan of Karyut;
  • In one of its one-sided actions, the occupation forces encircled the village of Jalameh in the Jenin district and stripped it tens dunams to build a crossing point;
  • His Excellency President Yasser Arafat says Israel is using all kinds of fatal and destructive measures to confront our unarmed people, and Shaul Mofaz would think twice about using nuclear weapons. And this Mofaz has never spoken about the rights of our people. And from another point of view, His Excellency President Yasser Arafat said negotiations with Israel could only resume from the point at which they left off with the Labor Party government;
  • European representative Miguel Moratinos said he had taken a letter from to Syrian president Bashar Assad from Israeli prime minister-elect Ariel Sharon. Moratinos made his statement after being received in Damascus yesterday by Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara, and Shara said Syria is open to an initiative leading to Israeli withdrawal from the Syrian Golan occupied since 1967.”

2 p.m. Afternoon Headlines
Lead-in to Panorama Show, from anchorman Jamil Miari

“The Afternoon News of the day begins with an explosion, the second in four days (Note: actually the fourth in four days) in which three people were killed and 50 others wounded in front of a bus in the middle of the City of Netanya. Israeli sources say an Arab was carrying a bomb and about to board a bus when a policeman suspected him and he blew it up according to Israeli sources.Israel rushed to place the blame for the explosion on President Arafat and the national authority, the explosion which raised the number of Israeli dead since the beginning of the Intifada to 65, according to Israeli figures. And Israeli Knesset Member Gideon Ezra called on Israel to invade territory of the National Authority.And the Palestinian Authority rejected Israeli accusations and threats, calling them a delusion divorced from reality.”

(In unusual format change, the anchorman went straight to Gaza for a report rather than going to bulletin headlines.)

Adil Za’anoun, reporting from Gaza:

“The National Authority rejected Israeli attempt to place responsibility on it for the exploion event in Netanya today. And nabil Abu-Irdeineh, the advisor of President Arafat, said in a statement to us: ‘The National Authority rejects (Israeli efforts) placing responsibility for the explosion in Netanya.’ In addition, Abu-Irdeineh stressed that the economic and military siege of Palestinian territory and the threats by Israeli officials are the cause for real confrontations..And Abu-Irdeineh asserted the need for Israel to cease its escalation and polluting the atmosphere with threats that hurt peace and stability. And he demanded strict observance of registered agreements and the end of Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and the lifting of the siege.”

In its afternoon and evening broadcasts, V.O.P. tried to “spin” the Netanya bombing into an Israeli lynch story, as well as pinning the blame for the Netanya attack itself on Israel.

In its 6 p.m. broadcast, the Voice of Palestine returned to the hard-line statement released by Arafat spokesman Nabil Abu Irdeineh at 12-noon, which was softened in subsequent broadcasts.

“The National Authority rejected Israeli accusations of responsibility for the explosion in Netanya, and it termed the Israeli accusations ‘a delusion divorced from reality.’ And the president’s advisor (i.e. Yasser Arafat’s personal spokesman) Nabil Abu Irdeineh ‘what occurred is the result of the policy of violence and siege and an example of what results from Israel’s actions.'”

V.O.P. also detailed the attack by a “knife wielding Jewish extremist” on three Arabs in Jerusalem, wounding them slightly, and the critical wounding of an Arab man near the bomb site in Netanya.

“The explosion in Netanya resulted in four death, one of them the man who carried the explosive charge, and 60 were wounded, six of them critically, according to Israeli reports.which News of the Sunday morning bombing in Netanya was first broadcast on V.O.P. as the opening item at its regular 10 a.m. hourly news bulletin, a little less than an hour after the bombing.

Important Note: Throughout the day, there was not a hint of condemnation or even disapproval-by the Palestinian Authority for the Netanya bombing.

In fact, in several of the broadcasts there was more than a smug suggestion that all of Israel’s police reinforcements and high-tech measures had failed to stop the attack.

In addition, several PA officials were quoted as saying the Intifada would continue until all Palestinian demands are met.

Bombing . . for the Right of Return to Netanya

By
David Bedein
-

At the end of November, I lectured at a retirement home in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya, to discuss the PLO demand that all Arabs who have wallowed in UN refugee camps for the past fifty years to have the “right of return” to villages that they left in 1948.

I showed them the map of a “future Palestinian State” which the PLO Orient House headquarters provides in Jerusalem, which marks the 531 Arab villages that are slated for return, all of which had been overrun in 1948.

One of those villages was Um Khalid, which, according to the PLO, had been illegally absorbed by Netanya.

The PLO therefore defines Netanya as one of Israel’s “illegal settlements”, under the terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention, enacted in 1949, which forbids a conquering nation from moving its citizens into a conquered area.

The implications: the PLO will justify any attack on any such settlement that it views as “illegal”.

In January, 1995, following Hamas terror bombs that killed 21 people at a bus stop at the Beit Lid/Netanya junction, PLO’s secretary general Marwan Barguti calmly told MBC Saudi television why the PLO would justify an attack on Netanya: “This is an area that we have yet to liberate” We still have that video on our shelf.

Meanwhile, the formalized December, 1995 PLO -Hamas accord, signed in Cairo by both Palestinian factions, allowed the Hamas to carry out operations outside of areas not yet under direct PLO control in areas within Israel proper that had not yet been liberated.

These ideas of the “right of return” play out on the ground in many ways that have escaped public attention:

Over the past 7 years, the PLO developed a computer terminal with a base at its Orient House which helps Arab refugees locate their homes from before 1948, to enable their imminent right of return to places like Um Khalid.

Throughout summer 2000, UMRWA Arab refugee camps sponsored tours for Arab refugee children, their parents and their grandparents to visitvillages that they had left in 1948. They used Israeli Arab buses to circumvent checkpoints.

The above presentation made retirees at the Netanya nursing home very nervous.

They could not believe what they were hearing, that their city was considered to be a target.

They became quite emotional, and some of the retirees actually screamed that “all the Palestinians want is the west bank and Gaza”.

It was clear that the message that the PLO demanded the “right of return” to Netanya was a hard one for these senior citizens to swallow.

Yet there was one man who made it easy to listen: An Arab male nurse present asked to say something at the end of the lecture.

He approached the podium He stared at the map and and turned to speak to the retirees “This is what want. The ‘right of return’. That would bring peace”, said the nurse. I asked him if that meant that Israel would have to withdraw from Um Khalid.

The nurse, in a soft voice,said “yes”.

I then said to the nurse that this would mean that half of the Jews would have to leave their homes in Netanya. The nurse said, “well, that is the price of peace”

The retirees were stunned. The message had been delivered.

The Arab nurse at the Netanya nursing home conveyed the same data that I had just communicated, with greater credibility.

Since the time of that talk in Netanya, Arabs have detonated two fatal bombs in the center of that city.

Our agency, which monitors and translates the newscasts on the Voice of Palestine radio news program, the official Arabic Palestinian Authority news station, has discerned no Palestinian condemnation of these attacks in Netanya.

From the PLO point of view, these bombings occur because Um Khalid has not yet been liberated from Netanya.

In the words of Arafat’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rodeinah, speaking on Voice of Palestine radio following the Netanya bombing on March 4, 2001, “What occurred is an example of what results from Israel’s policies.”

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