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Contents:
Nabil Shaath's Call For the
Right of Return: "I do not see a solution for my people other than return to the homeland. This return is inevitable and it includes return to the future Palestinian state and to the Palestinian cities and villages in Israel." This declaration was made two days ago by Dr. Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian foreign minister, at a news conference in Beirut. "The right of return is no longer an illusion," Shaath said. "It is an integral part of the Arab peace initiative (that of the Saudi Arabian crown prince), which is mentioned as a central document to which the road map refers." After praising the road map Shaath stressed that "The right of return includes the return of the Palestinians to an independent Palestinian state, and also to the Palestinian cities and villages inside the Jewish state, whether an individual chooses to return to Haifa or Nablus.' Shaath appeared two days ago before the news media at the Commodore Hotel in Beirut, accompanied by the Lebanese Foreign Minister Jean Obeid, shortly before flying to Damascus. In an angry speech Shaath charged that Israel "definitely" intends to violate the hudna, in order to explode the negotiations on the road map. In an interview which he granted yesterday in Damascus to the al-Arabiye TV channel, he said: "The return of the refugees to the territory of the Palestinian state is guaranteed. The question of their return to their cities and villages inside Israel, is still a matter for negotiation." [Israeli] officials reacted with fury to Shaath's statements. "They would mean the destruction of Israel," an official in Jerusalem said yesterday. "The refugees will never return to the State of Israel. The Palestinians will have to choose between living in a state alongside Israel, or not having a state at all." Foreign ministry sources said Shaath's statements were an attempt to divert world attention from the debate on dismantling the terrorist infrastructure. Health Minister Danny Naveh said "This declaration shows that the Palestinian leadership has not given up its desire to destroy the State of Israel." This article ran in the August 17th issue of Maariv
Appreciating the Candor of
Nabil Shaath Israel has no cause […]to be angry at the Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, who declared yesterday in Lebanon that the road map will bring the refugees from 1948 back from Beirut to Haifa. It is true that he was exaggerating and distorting the meaning of the road map, since it does not say that on the issue of the right of return, the same rule applies to Nablus as to Lod, but it is also true that it does not rule out such a destructive possibility. Thanks are due to Shaath because he had the goodness to uncover what lies hidden deep in his heart. His statements were evidence of the weakness of those schools of thought, founded by Moshe Dayan and Ariel Sharon, which favor interim agreements [with the Palestinians], rather than striving for the permanent agreements which were favored by Yigal Alon, as well as Menahem Begin and Ehud Barak (a few days ago The New York Times published an article supporting the latter view). A senior American diplomat, Frederick Vreeland, who participated after the Six Day War in drawing up UN Resolution 242, wrote that at the time everybody believed that if the practical problems were solved, then the questions of Jerusalem and the refugees would resolve themselves. This was a mistake. Now it is fitting to discuss these problems first, before dealing with the issues such as demilitarization and borders. This is not a trivial matter. The fact is that so far not one single Palestinian has been found who is willing to agree that the right of return would be realized by migration of Palestinians to their state in Hebron and Kalkilya alone. Only Professor Sari Nusseibeh understands this and he is the only just man in the Palestinian Sodom. Therefore, apart from the joint manifesto published by Nusseibeh and Ami Ayalon, there is no single, agreed platform on this issue, not even in the intriguing document which the discussion group headed by Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo have been writing for the past three years. When the road map was published, Tsipi Livni, Uzi Landau and Ephraim Halevi immediately spotted the mistake in it, namely that the right of return was not rejected, or at least scheduled for discussion at an early stage. From this point of view Shaath has done Israel a favor, by confirming what Israelis suspected anyway, namely that the Palestinians do not intend to solve the problem of the refugees outside the borders the Jewish state. This, therefore is the time for a change of direction. The debate on the refugees and the question of Jerusalem should be discussed first and other issues should be solved after them. Yasser Arafat caused the failure of the Camp David Conference and resumed the fighting and the bloodshed because he did not want to discuss the partition of Jerusalem. That is precisely the point to which the negotiations ought to return, to the end of Camp David, with Jerusalem and the refugees first. Therefore [in spite of the protests which it aroused in Israel] Shaath's statement was all to the good. This analysis ran in the August 17th issue of Maariv
Will the Casino in Jericho Once
Again Open its Doors to Israeli clients?
Israeli gamblers will be disappointed: Following the IDF withdrawal from Palestinian cities, including Jericho, the Palestinians announced that the Jericho casino is prepared to open its gates to masses of gamblers, however the IDF has decided not to allow Israelis to enter Jericho. This means that at present, the casino will remain closed. The gaming halls and slot machines were only recently renovated, and the electrical systems were successfully tested. Even the dealers have already been told to be ready to be called on short notice. But at the present stage, the casino owners will be forced to wait the festive opening. The reason is that Israel is not willing to permit Israelis to enter the city boundaries as long as the Palestinians have not demonstrated security control over the terror organizations. The problem is that there are also no tourists in the city at the present time, and according to the franchise agreement for operating the casino, Palestinians have been forbidden to gamble there, except those who hold foreign passports. "The prohibition on Israelis entering Jericho is an internal Israeli affair. Those who enter the boundaries of the city of Jericho in general, including the casino, will be violating an order by OC Central Command, which prohibits Israelis from entering the PA territories, and such offenders will be subject to prosecution," said IDF sources yesterday. Police sources said that the Israeli gamblers are not particularly impressed by the various orders and prohibitions. "If the casino does open, Israeli gamblers will find indirect ways of reaching the casino to gamble," said a senior police source. The IDF is still not prepared to take the risk and enable Israelis to walk around Jericho, as long as the Palestinians have not proved that they are controlling terror and supervising the wanted men who found refuge in Jericho. The commanders of the Palestinian security services in Jericho, conversely, say to the Israelis: "Welcome. We will provide full security to anyone who enters territories under our responsibility, whether Israeli or a tourist." The Jericho casino, which was open around the clock and hosted about 3,000 Israelis every day, was an important source of livelihood for the residents of Jericho until it closed in October 2000, following the el-Aksa Intifada. A luxury hotel, the Intercontinental, was even built nearby to serve the gamblers. Security officials believe that the casino, which opened in 1998 and quickly became an economic success story on an international scale, brought about USD 1 million per day into the coffers of the Palestinian Authority. During the fighting the casino was damaged, among other reasons due to the fact that rival groups of the Palestinian security services fired from the roof and windows of the casino, forcing Israel to return fire towards the building and cause damage to it. Over the past few months all the damage has been repaired, and the signs of combat have disappeared from the casino building. Bret Anderson, general manager of the casino for the Casinos Austria company, the owner of the casino in Jericho, said last night that hundreds of thousands of dollars had been invested in renovating the casino, especially in filling the holes opened in the building's walls as a result of shots. "The greatest mystery is how tight IDF supervision over the movement of Israelis will be, and how safe it will be to travel from Israeli territory to Jericho," said Anderson. "We have no interest in having the Israelis travel through the desert to bypass the IDF roadblocks. As soon as we receive assurances that the situation is normal, we will be able to operate the casino. We will not risk opening the casino until we know that our clients are completely safe," he said This piece appeared in Yediot Ahronot of August 18th. 2003
News Diary: August 13, 2003 Funding Terrrorism in Northern Israel? The Attack In the August 11 edition of the Israeli paper Ha'aretz, the leading military analyst Zev Schiff noted that the "Hezbollah uses anti-aircraft aimed to explode over Israeli communities and not hit Israeli planes," and went on to say that "Hezbollah also set the shells fired from the cannon to detonate relatively low and thus increase the chances of casualties and damage." If you live in Israel's northern Galilee like we used to, or if you have a son who serves in an IDF unit like we do now, then you know very well that attacks on Israel's northern civilian communities have been going on for the past year and a half, and you know that a war is ensuing on Israel's northern frontier - despite Israel's hasty redeployment from Southern Lebanon three years ago. So much for the illusion that Israel's May 2000 redeployment to the 1949 armistice lines with Lebanon would facilitate international and even Lebanese recognition for Israel's northern border and salve the appetite of Palestinian Arabs or Islamic fundamentalists to attack Israel. The IDF spokesman's computer recounts that 109 attacks occurred against Israel's civilian communities in the North since January, 2002. Such attacks portend a military campaign which Israel is ill prepared to cope with on Israel's northern frontier. So much for the news reports over the past year and a half which gave the Israeli public the impression anti-aircraft fire was only being fired by Hezbollah against Israeli aircraft while the news media neglected to report that Israeli planes rarely fly over southern Lebanon. Such myths were shattered when a Hezbollah missile decapitated a sixteen-year-old Israeli boy in the northern Israeli town of Shlomi yesterday. The Context Few people realize is that the lines which demarcate Israel and Lebanon are not "borders"; they are only "armistice lines" that Israel and Lebanon agreed to after the not-yet-resolved 1948 war, after the combined military forces Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia tried to eradicate the nascent State of Israel. The only border ever been defined between Israeli and a neighboring country is with Egypt. The unresolved 1948 war simmers with Israel's other neighboring countries who now host 4 million Palestinian Arab refugees and their descendants who wallow in the squalor of UN Arab refugee camps, under the UN specious mandate of the "right of return" to 1948 Arab villages that no longer exist in present-day Israel. The Cauldron Nowhere does the UN Arab refugee camp issue fester with greater lethal capacity than in Lebanon, the only refugee "host" country that forbids their 320,000 Palestinian Arab refugees and descendants from working in more than 100 defined professions, while disenfranchising them from representation in the Lebanese parliament. UN refugee camps in Lebanon have become virtual military training camps for the Hezbollah and various factions of the PLO who use these UN facilities to train thousands of Arab refugees for their eventual crusade to retake northern Israel. The Ein Hilwe UN refugee camp, some 70 kilometers from Israel, conducts daily military parades, with rival armed Palestinian Arab factions fighting for control of the camp. An aside: armed militias have been dispatched from Ein Hilwe over the last six months to conduct guerrilla warfare attacks against U.S. troops stationed in Iraq. The U.S. covers 30 percent of the budget for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Work Agency, the agency which runs the UN Arab refugee camp in Ein Hilwe and the 58 other Arab refugee camps. The rest of UNRWA's funding comes from 38 other western nations. So there you have it. UNRWA stirs the cauldron of the "right of return," while the forces of radical Islam energize the Palestinian Arab refugee population to prepare for the next battle to "liberate Palestine" - spearheaded by Hezbollah, armed and trained by Syria and Iran. August 17, 2003 Shaath was correct: the "Road Map" is based on the Saudi initiative which endorses the "Right of Return" Nabil Shaath, the Palestine National Authority (PNA) Foreign Minister led the news on the Israel Broadcasting Authority TV's World News Hour On Saturday Night, August 16th, when Shaath declared in a Beirut speech that the US-sponsored road map would mandate the right of Palestinian Arab refugees to return to villages from 1948 which have been replaced by cities, collective farms and woodlands in the present day the state of Israel. Surprisingly, Shaath was correct. All you have to do is to read the "road map" to know that The Saudi initiative, which supports the "right of return", provides the basis for the Road Map. If anyone doubts Shaath's word, just read the official document which defines the road map, " A Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" which can be found at: http://www.un.org/media/main/roadmap122002.html. The road map definition clearly states that the US sponsored road map is based on "the initiative of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah endorsed by the Beirut Arab League" All this is in keeping with the Palestinian State Constitution, authored by the same Nabil Shaath and ratified on March 26th by the US- funded PLC, the Palestine Legislative Council. That constitution legislates the "right of return" for all Palestinian Arab refugees and their descendents to return to the villages from 1948, even if they no longer exist Thousands of maps recently issued and distributed by the Palestinian National Authority in Arabic and in English provide a clear guide for Palestinian Arab refugees and their descendants to forcibly take back the 531 Arab villages lost in 1948 which have been replaced by Israeli cities, collective farms and woodlands. Following Shaath's appearance on IBA TV, IBA Radio was quick to report that Shaath had reversed his position on the "right of return" during the next speech that he delivered in Damascus in which Shaath reportedly said that the "right of return" was "open for negotiation". However, IMRA news agency (www.imra.org.il) publicized the press release of the official news organ of the PA, The Palestine Media Center- (PMC), which issued an immediate press statement following Shaath's clear declaration that the "right of return" was indeed the basis for the "road map" In the words of the widely circulated PA press release, found at: http://www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=994, "The right of return for Palestinian refugees to their homes in Israel or the territories the Jewish state occupied in 1967 was guaranteed under the US-sponsored "road map" for peace, "No condition has been set for a return (only) to an independent Palestinian state. The right of return is no longer an illusion. It is an integral part of the Arab peace initiative, which is one of the reference points in the road map," Shaath said, speaking at a hotel in the Lebanese capital Beirut, "I want to be clear: this right includes returning to an independent state and to Palestinian cities in the Jewish state. Whether a person returns to Haifa (Israel) or to Nablus (West Bank), their return is guaranteed," he confirmed…The minister was referring to the Saudi initiative adopted by Arab League summit meeting in Beirut summit in March 2002" Not that Israel does not object. However, Israel stands alone in its objection. Shimon Shiffer, Senior Diplomatic Correspondent for Israel's Yediot Aharonot newspaper, reported on May 23, 2003, two days before the Israeli government ratified the road map that "The Americans rejected one of Israel's central demands, which states that the Palestinian Arabs would agree to concede the right of return in return for Israel's recognition of a Palestinian Arab state. They also rejected Israel's demand to remove the Saudi proposal (a full withdrawal to the lines of June 4, 1967, recognition of the right of return, in return for the recognition of Israel by the Arab countries and normal relations) as one of the main sources of the road map's authority" Israel has requested that the US, Canada, the EU and the Scandinavian countries who are involved in Middle East negotiations issue a clear statement of opposition to the Arab demand for the "right of return". However, none of them will do so. Checking with ranking diplomats from the US, Canadian, the EU and Scandanavia, I have discovered that all diplomatic missions in Israel, including the US, demand that Israel allow some refugees to return. They universally quote a recent Palestinian poll that "only 10%" of the Palestinian Arab refugees would want to return to their villages that they left in 1948. Well, since UNRWA counts 3.9 million people who qualify as "Palestinian Arab refugees", that would mean that Israel would have to absorb some 400,000 Arabs who would claim "their" homes and villages which are now in the heart of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa along with hundreds of Kibbutzim and Moshavim Israel stands alone in its position that Arab refugees and their descendants have no legal or moral right to take back their villages from 1948. However, the road map is based on precisely that presumption. The people of Israel do not know that. August 20, 2003 Road Map to Terror Last night, at the precise moment that a bomb tore apart the bus en route from the Old City of Jerusalem, PA Prime Minister Abu Mazen was meeting with the heads of the Islamic Jihad -- the same Islamic Jihad that claimed direct responsibility for that very bus bombing. Abu Mazen's spokespeople were open and candid about what took place in the meeting. Abu Mazen was not asking the Islamic Jihad to disarm. Abu Mazen, according to his spokesman, was "asking the Islamic Jihad to join the unified command of the Palestinian Authority." And yet the rationale for dealing with Abu Mazen was that his security forces would crush Islamic terror organizations. Almost ten years ago, when Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shook hands with Yasser Arafat and Abu Mazen on the White House lawn, most people in Israel and abroad expected that Arafat and Abu Mazen would form a new Arab entity to restrain the violent Moslem movements known as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. That was the rationale behind what later became known as the Oslo Peace Process, wherein Israel was expected to cede land for a new Palestinian Arab entity, while Arafat's PLO was expected to fight Islamic terror groups that continued to threaten the lives of Jews in Israel. Yet, from day one, the opposite occurred: instead of cracking down on Hamas, the PA created an alliance with them. Indeed, when I covered the Nobel Peace Prize news conference in Oslo in December, 1994, Israeli leaders Rabin and Peres conducted a press conference to state emphatically that their reason for making a peace deal with Arafat and Abu Mazen was that they had received a solid commitment from them to "crush the Hamas." I waited for Arafat and Abu Mazen for their press conference. I asked them if they would indeed fill the expectations of Rabin and Peres to "crush the Hamas." Arafat and Abu Mazen were surprised by the question. Arafat laughed. Abu Mazen smirked. Arafat's answer was clear and precise: "The Hamas are my brothers. I will handle them in my own way." Arafat said that in front of more than 200 reporters who were transmitting news reports to thousands of media outlets around the world, not one of whom reported what Arafat said or how Arafat laughed at the very thought that he should be expected to "crush" terrorists. And only three weeks after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, when the PLO celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in January 1995, Arafat delivered a series of lectures to his own people in Gaza and Jericho, praising suicide bombers and refusing to condemn the spate of Hamas terror attacks. These attacks had taken place at the time Arafat's speeches of praise for Hamas were televised by the new Palestinian TV network, the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, which is owned, controlled and operated by the Palestinian Authority and administered by Abu Mazen. Video cassettes of Arafat's harangues became popular in the Palestinian Arab open market. The Palestinian Authority's strategy was best summed up by then U.S. Ambassador to Israel and presidential confidante Martin Indyk, who told the Los Angeles Times on March 2, 1996, that the PA had decided to co-opt, rather than to fight, Hamas. The PA's co-option of the Islamic terror groups had manifest itself in deeds. On May 9, 1995, out news agency dispatched a Palestinian journalist to cover the Gaza press conference held by the PA Gaza police chief Ghazzi Jabali, in which the representatives the of the Palestine Authority officially announced that they would license weapons for the Hamas - this, only one month after Hamas had carried out an attack on an Israeli civilian bus near Gaza, killing six young Israelis and one American student (Aliza Flatow, R.I.P.). At Jabali's packed press conference, carried live on PBC radio, Jabali announced that Hamas leaders such as Dr. Muhammed Zahar - who was present at the meeting - would be "encouraged" to own weapons under the protection of the Palestine Authority. On the same day, our Palestinian TV crew filmed an armed Zahar addressing an angry mob in Gaza. Zahar's speech called for the bloody overthrow of the State of Israel, as he stood in front of a skull and crossbones imposed on a map of Israel. However, PA police chief Jabali would later assure the Associated Press on May 14, 1995, that he was expecting Hamas and Islamic Jihad to keep their licensed weapons "at home." In late October 1995, shortly before Rabin's assassination, I asked Rabin at a public forum about the PA decision to provide weapons to Hamas. Rabin acknowledged that this practice existed and quipped, dead-pan, "Maybe they're for peace, too." In other words, for the past eight years both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have operated with weapons licensed by the PA. Any call for the PA to remove illegal weapons would not include the weapons issued to the Islamic terror groups by the Palestinian Authority All levels of Abu Mazen's security forces acknowledge that they have recruited radical Islamics to join forces with them. The formal PA alliance with Hamas was exposed and hardly noticed when the semi-official Egyptian newspaper Al Aharam broke the story of the formal PLO-Hamas accord between the two organizations on December 15, 1995, in Cairo. As a direct result of that deal, the all important PA communications ministry was offered to Hamas leader Imad Falluci. That accord allowed Hamas to conduct attacks in areas of "Palestine" that "had not yet been liberated." PLO General Secretary Marwan Barghouti, justifying a Hamas attack at a bus stop on the outskirts of Netanya, explained that the PLO could not condemn such an act since that territory was "not yet liberated" by the PLO. And on each occasion when the PA was asked to "crack down" on these Islamic groups that took credit for fatal terror bombs against Israel, the PA instead ordered mass roundups which only resulted in mass confessions followed by mass release of prisoners. In 37 documented instances between 1994 and 2000, the Palestine Authority offered asylum to Hamas and Islamic Jihad members who murdered Israelis and took refuge in the new safe havens of Palestinian Arab cities that were protected by the PA security services. Under pressure from Israel and Western countries, Arafat eventually did arrest 22 Hamas members who had been involved in bus bombings throughout Israel between 1994 and 1996 - all of whom were released when the current war broke out in September 2000. A case in point: Muhammad Deif roams Gaza freely, fully armed and at liberty. Deif is the admitted Hamas mastermind of the October 1994, kidnapping and killing of Nachshon Wachsman, the 19-year-old American Israeli. When I asked the commander of the Palestine Liberation Army about Deif, he told me that he was under direct orders from Yasser Arafat not to touch Deif. This,despite the fact that U.S. President Bill Clinton declared at Nachshon Wachsman's grave in March 1996, that Israel should not continue any negotiating process with the Palestine Authority until and unless the PA hands over Deif to stand trial. Many close followers of the Middle East situation wrongly assume that the two entities - the PLO and Hamas - are in conflict, when in fact they closely coordinate every move under the administrative framework of the Palestinian National Authority, the Palestinian state-in-the-making. Meanwhile, our news agency has obtained a copy of the PNA-approved Constitution of the new Palestinian state, jointly agreed upon by the PLO and Hamas. That document, whose cover page thanks UNESCO and the Italian government for funding its law committee, declares that Islam will be the state religion of Palestine, that its borders will encompass all of Palestine - not just the West Bank and Gaza - and that no other religion will have any status in the future Palestinian state. And where did we obtain from the PA State Constitution? Not from Israeli intelligence. We covered a briefing for Congressmen provided by the Papal Nuncio, the Pope's Ambassador, Msgr. Pietro Sambi, who presented the PA state Constitution as the "framework for a totalitarian Islamic terror state." In other words, the Hamas/Islamic jihad ideology will become the philosophy of the Palestinian State in the making. An unwritten rule exists in the media - even in the Israeli press - to downplay the undeniable evidence of a PLO-Islamic alliance and their confluence of objectives. This is a denial of the cruel reality on the ground. They are in fact one entity with a single aim: the annihilation of the Jewish state in the Middle East. I cannot forget Arafat's laugh or Abu Mazen's smirk in Oslo. August 21, 2003 Rejoicing Over Jewish Blood Mainstream media outlets are reporting that Abu Mazen condemns the August 19th bus Arab terror massacre, conveying the impression that the PA condemns the massacre. However, most significantly, the Arabic language official Palestinian Authority Radio, Palestinian Authority TV and Palestinian Authority newspapers did not carry any real condemnation from Abu Mazen or any other official from the Palestinian Authority yesterday. Dr. Michael Widlanski, who recently completed his Ph.D. on the subject of the Palestinian Authority media, and who was formerly a reporter for the Israel bureau of The New York Times and the bureau chief of The Atlanta Constitution, listened to and recorded the radio newscasts of the PA radio station on the day following the bus massacre. The PA radio anchor led newscasts throughout the day by saying that "The Israelis are describing yesterday's operation as a terrorist attack." He then went on with other news of the day. Dr. Aaron Lerner, the director of IMRA news agency, www.imra.org.il, asked Dr. Widlanski to comment on the reaction of the PA to the bus bombing yesterday in Jerusalem. The following are his observations: "If the Palestinian Authority, or as they term themselves, the Palestinian leadership, had any intention to convey a message of real condemnation of these attacks, they would call them attacks." The bombing of the bus yesterday is universally termed in the Palestinian press "amaliyya al Quds" - "the Jerusalem operation," rather than as an "attack" or a "terroristic attack." By the way, the "peace process" is also termed the "peace operation" by the Palestinian media. The "condemnation" broadcast by Voice of Palestine radio never condemned the perpetrators. Interestingly, the reports all act as if the identity of the attacker is not known. It should also be noted that the reports did not begin with the news of the attack and its "condemnation". They opened with comments about the "horrible" things that the Israelis were doing (i.e. the "racist fence"). And yesterday morning the top story was the Israelis "invading" the Temple Mount. Voice of Palestine also ran very cheerful music after the bus attack - as they did after the recent Rosh Ha'ayin/Ariel attacks. It was unusually light music - as they would play on a holiday. Meanwhile, Al Quds, the official newspaper of the Palestinian Authority, also ran an interesting editorial cartoon - two colored star bursts going off before cameras labeled Baghdad and Jerusalem." The time has come for the press to learn from the mistakes of the Oslo process. For almost a decade, the media has tended to mislead the public by ignoring the Arabic language broadcasts and telecasts of the official Palestinian Authority media, whose radio news content is directly controlled by Arafat and Abu Mazen. Even the Jewish Telegraphic Agency fell into the trap, when the JTA"s Gil Sedan reported in his dispatch of August 20th that Abu Mazen "vehemently condemned the bombing, [and] reportedly ordered PA security services to arrest those responsible." Sedan, who knows Arabic, could very easily have checked with the Arabic language PA TV, PA radio and PA newspapers, where he would have heard an entirely different message from the Palestinian Authority. What a totalitarian entity communicates for foreign consumption means very little. What matters is what that entity communicates to its own people in its own language and in its own media. And what the PA is communicating bodes a dangerous future for innocent Israelis. August 23, þ2003 Does Powell Contravene Bush's Policy to Keep Arafat in Power? Ever since President George W. Bush decided more than a year ago to deepen his involvement in the middle east quagmire, it had been the policy of the Bush administration to implement some kind of "modus vivendi" without Yassir Arafat. It had been the adamant Bush policy to do everything possible to ignore Arafat, to weaken Arafat, and to coordinate a policy with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of making Arafat into an "irrelevant" figure in the middle east negotiation process. And yet every step of the way in which Abu Mazen has been brought into the picture, Arafat and Abu Mazen have both made it quite clear that so long as Arafat is around, he will most certainly be running the PLO ship. Indeed, when Abu Mazen appeared before the US House International Relations Committee on July 24, 2003, the first question of Middle East Subcommittee Chairperson Ileana Ros-Leighten was very simple: "What is your relationship to Arafat"?, to which Abu Mazen answered in clear, simple terms: "Arafat sent me. I am the representative of Yassir Arafat". It was as if Abu Mazen had expressed a Lincolnesque version of the statement that "you can fool some of the people some of the time". The masquerade of the US foreign policy supposedly ignoring Arafat came to an end after the August 19th Arab terror massacre in Jerusalem, in which twenty Jewish men, women and children were murdered. All of a sudden, US Secretary of State Colin Powell Suddenly Recognized Arafat's Permanent Control of Palestinian Security Forces, when Powell made a statement at the UN on August 21st that "I call on Chairman Arafat to work with Prime Minister Abbas and to make available to Prime Minister Abbas those security elements that are under his control". As Israeli media analyst Dr. Aaron Lerner noted, Powell made it a point to use the term s "make available" - not "transfer" and that Powell, speaking to the press with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan standing next to him, publicly dropped the key precondition of America's launching of the road map (that Arafat is essentially out of the picture) and a key element of the Roadmap (that there not be different Palestinian security forces)". See: http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2003/23452.htm In other words, Arafat isn't out - Mr. Powell recognizes he is very much holding considerable power. The existence of security forces beholden to Arafat isn't put to an end - Mr. Powell recognizes that Arafat continues to have "security elements . . . under his control" and only wants that Arafat be so kind and generous as to make his forces "available to Prime Minister Abbas", much as the United States wants many nations to make available forces to the American lead coalition in Iraq". And to further pour salt on the wound, Powell went so far as to compare those who opposed a PLO state with those who conducted acts of heinous murder, concluding his remarks by saying that "The alternative is what? Just more death and destruction? Let the terrorists win? Let those who have no interest in a Palestinian state win? Let those who have no interest but killing innocent people win? No. That is not an acceptable outcome." However, there is no PLO leadership that is in any way interested in breaking decisively with terrorism. There are no signs that Abbas and Dahlan are capable of fighting terror. And now that Powell has revived Arafat as the real and present PLO leader who carries all power, this will dash any Palestinian, Israeli, and American hopes that this is the "new leadership, not compromised by terror" that President George W. Bush spoke of in June of last year. We will know that a Palestinian Arab leadership has arisen that truly wishes to live by Israel's side when that leadership forcibly confronts those who do not. The idea that Arabs who are willing to die to kill Israeli children can be sweetly talked out of their beliefs is not credible. The Palestinian Arab people must choose if they want a state or unity under a banner of terror. Tragically, US Sec'y of State Powell has chosen to reinforce Arafat, the symbol of the Palestinian Arab people who supports that "unity under a banner of terror". You cannot fool all of the people all of the time. Arafat has never left his leadership role will never voluntarily do so. Only last month, the Palestinian Authority Elections Commission announced that there would be only one candidate for president of the nascent Palestinian State: Yassir Arafat. Meanwhile, the PA State Constitution, adopted by the Palestinian Legislative Council, places all powers in the Palestinian State President, not in their Prime Minister. The US Sec'y of State does not know that? You cannot fool all of the people all of the time. The question remains: Why does the US State Department help Arafat stay in power? More important: Since the US Constitution mandates that the Congress must advise and consent the US Administration in matters of foreign policy, has Congress mandated that the US Secretary of State Colin Powell to keep Arafat in power? Time will tell.
MEMRI: Incitement in the
Palestinian Authority After the Aqaba Summit In his June 4, 2003 speech at the Aqaba summit, Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) said, "We will also act vigorously against incitement and violence and hatred, whatever their form or forum may be. We will take measures to ensure that there is not incitement emanating from Palestinian institutions."[1] It was in a meeting following that speech that PA Information Minister Nabil Amr and Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom decided to establish two joint committees to examine Palestinian and Israeli incitement in the media and in school curricula.[2] Since that meeting, the PA has taken a number of steps to stop incitement in the media and in mosques. Concurrently, however, incitement by bodies and institutions belonging to the PA or under its supervision continues. Thus, for example, Jihad and Shahada [martyrdom] are still glorified in the PA media, mosques and schoolbooks. They are also celebrated in summer camps that are named for suicide bombers and their dispatchers. Palestinian textbooks containing messages extolling Jihad and Shahada have not been changed.[3] It should be noted that the media - newspapers, radio, and television - are still controlled by PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, who himself relies on incitement to bolster his public status against that of Abu Mazen. For instance, Palestinian Television did not air any of the Aqaba summit, showing instead archive footage of Arafat. This paper reviews both attempts to halt incitement and evidence of its continuation from the June 4, 2003 Aqaba summit up to the August 19 bus suicide bombing in Jerusalem. These are measured against limited criteria: only glorification of martyrdom or incitement to violence, only against targets inside the Green Line, and only since the Aqaba summit. Incitement occurring after the release of the Road Map and up to the Aqaba summit was not included in the paper, but two examples can be seen in Appendix I. Table of Contents I. Calls for Ending Incitement To Violence A. Calls for Ending Incitement
A Demand to End Incitement in the Media B. Calls Against Violence C. Summer Camps to Encourage Peace II. Incitement To and Encouragement Of Violence A. PA TV Broadcasts (Video Clips Encouraging Shahada) B. Friday Sermon on PA TV (Praising Shahids) C. Glorification of Violence in the Press
Obituaries for the Bus Bomber in Jerusalem and the Kfar Yabetz (Near Tel
Aviv) Bomber D. Other Ways of Glorifying Shahids
Summer Camps Educating to Shahada E. Palestinian Officials Encourage Violence and Shahada F. Anti-American Incitement Appendices Appendix I: Palestinian Incitement from the Release of the Road Map to the Aqaba Summit A. Arafat's Speech Marking International Day of the Child 2003, to Children of Palestinian Prisoners and Detainees Held by Israel, The Muqata'a, Ramallah B. Friday Sermon by Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris, Gaza Mosque - May 5, 2003 Appendix II: A Palestinian Peace Song Appendix III: Cartoons Appendix IV: Photos of children carrying weapons and of armed 'resisters to the occupation' posted on the Palestinian National Authority State Information Service website http://www.ipc.gov.ps I. Calls for Ending Incitement To Violence A. Calls for Ending Incitement 1. A Demand to End Incitement in the Media The PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida quoted a Reutersreport that the PA had ordered the local media to reduce "the combative tone against Israel," and called on Israeli media to "use restraint" in their reports.The paper said that Al-Hayat Al-Jadida editor-in-chief Hafez Al-Barghouti told Reuters that "the newspaper was asked by the PA to cease the incitement against Israel and similar demands were directed toward Palestinian Television and a number of West Bank radio stations." PA Information Minister Nabil Amr said, "Every day, the Information Ministry sends the media letters containing guidance on political and information [matters]." An Information Ministry communiqué stated that Arafat had in the past, following the Wye Memorandum, issued an order calling for the prevention of incitement;[4] this was a reference to an order published January 19, 1998.[5] 2. 'Song of Peace' Broadcast on Palestinian Television During PA Prime Minister Abu Mazen's July 2003 visit to Washington D.C., Palestinian Television broadcast a video clip, subtitled in Arabic and English, of children singing in Arabic, English, French, and Hebrew about their longing for peace and brotherhood among Muslim, Christian, and Jewish children. The child representing the Jew in the clip is in ultra-Orthodox garb, with side-curls and a hat of the kind commonly worn by ultra-Orthodox Jews, and it is notable that there is no mention of Israel or Israelis. The following is an excerpt from the song (see Appendix II for full version):
"Fly with the birds "My homeland, my mother The people's suffering is mine My heart is a little angel Dreaming of peace The pigeon's song."[6] 3. An Order to End Incitement in the Mosques Dr. Suleiman 'Ouda, lecturer at Al-Azhar University and preacher at Gaza's Anan Mosque, was interviewed for the Al-Ra'i supplement of thePolitical and National Guidance Administration, which appears in the PA dailyAl-Hayat Al-Jadida. He said: "The preacher must refrain from [mentioning] all controversial Hadiths [Islamic traditions] and opinions, and seek other subjects that unite the citizens, particularly at this difficult time when we need national unity. [Preachers] must refrain [from addressing] all political spheres in the mosques. [Since] the mosques belong to Allah, do not preach to anyone besides Allah." 'Ouda also criticized some Palestinian factions' abuse of mosques as platforms for disseminating propaganda, as well as the pasting of signs and posters on the inner and outer walls of the mosques. He said that these activities lead to tension, not calm, and detract from the spirit of the mosques, which should be a meeting place for all Muslims, regardless of their views or affiliation.[7] 4. Actions to Remove Incitement Graffiti in Gaza City In early July 2003, the PA declared a "Clean and Beautiful Gaza" campaign. Municipal workers erased graffiti that had accumulated throughout the Intifada. The Palestinian daily Al-Quds reported that Palestinian political commentator Ali Al-Jibrawi told Reuters that "the graffiti and murals have become a symbol of the national Palestinian identity since the 1967 occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, and it is one of the few means the Palestinians have to convey political messages." Al-Jibrawi questioned the effectiveness of cleaning up the graffiti, since, as he said, "the change must be in the people's minds, not on their walls."[8] B. Calls Against Violence Palestinian officials called for a halt to violent operations, particularly because of the Hudna (temporary ceasefire agreement). PA Prime Minister Abu Mazen told Reuters in an interview: "From now on anybody, any faction, any party which violates it - we will put them in prison. We will invest maximum effort in preventing confrontation with our people, because if we do this, this may lead to civil war and bring about an end to all the hopes of our people."[9] PA Minister in Charge of Security Affairs Muhammad Dahlan added, "The natural place of anyone who violates the cease fire announced by the Palestinian Authority is in court."[10] Following the firing of rockets and mortar shells from the Gaza Strip at Israeli communities after the Aqaba summit, the Fatah Movement issued a communique declaring that it was against all attempts to violate the Hudna and saw these attempts as deviating from the national consensus. The movement called on its men to "fight these operations, to condemn them, and to expose the elements that stand behind them." Fatah also called on the Palestinian government "to shoulder responsibility and catch anyone who acts on his own authority against the interests of the Palestinian people."[11] Preventive Security apparatus head in Bethlehem Col. Majdi Al-'Atari told the Palestinian daily Al-Quds: "We will pursue anyone who tries to violate the law or who acts against it. We will not allow anyone to bear arms except the official, uniformed PA personnel and security officers."[12] Preventive Security apparatus head in the Gaza Strip Col. Rashid Abu Shbak told the PA daily Al-Ayyam that the apparatus would continue to pursue anyone who tried to violate the Hudna. He also said that Preventive Security was, for the third consecutive day, hunting members of the "popular resistance committees" in the Gaza Strip with the aim of arresting them, and that two of them had already been arrested.[13] C. Summer Camps to Encourage Peace The PA organizes summer camps for youth every year, and this year the theme of some camps was peace - for example, the 'Brotherhood and Peace' camp in Isawiyya and the Peace Camp in Hebron.[14] Sanaa Al-Masri, commander of the summer camp at the Mus'ib bin Umair school in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City, said that this year's message in the summer camps was, by order of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, "the peace of the brave." Al-Masri noted that "the peace for which we call [in the summer camp] is a just peace that guarantees the restoration of our Palestinian rights, in accordance with the U.N. resolutions, including 194 which orders the return of the Palestinian refugees, and a peace that guarantees a release of all prisoners and detainees."[15] Zuheir Al-Kahlout, commander of a summer camp in the Al-Zahawi school in Gaza City, said the camp staff was "acting to teach the children love for a peace based on justice and equality, not on submission."[16] Lt.-Gen. Muhammad 'Awadhalla, director of the financial department of the summer camps of the National Guidance Administration, explained the decision to adopt the motto "the peace of the brave" for the summer camps as: "'The peace of the brave' [is a motto] that President Abu Ammar [Arafat] calls for, and setting the motto 'the peace of the brave' as the motto of the summer camps is a positive step. This is because our people and its leadership want to realize the peace of the brave to which President Arafat calls. the Palestinian people have been longing for peace for years, to live in serenity that guarantees security for Palestinian and Israeli children alike. 'The peace of the brave' is what will guarantee love and well being for the region and will realize a better future for our children." At the same time, 'Awadhalla said, "The summer camps are an essential need for our boys and girls, to hone their knowledge, in addition to the spirit of sacrifice [fidaa] and love of the homeland."[17] II. Incitement To and Encouragement Of Violence Glorification of Shahids and Shahada is continuing, with no distinction between Shahids who died in conflicts with the IDF and settlers in the Palestinian territories and those who carried out suicide bombings killing Israeli civilians within the Green Line. Continued praise and glorification can be found both in the Palestinian media reports and in the framework of the various activities organized by PA bodies. A. PA TV Broadcasts (Video Clips Encouraging Shahada) Several times after the Aqaba summit, Palestinian Television rebroadcast a video clip on the Virgins of Paradise - the Shahid's reward - that had been aired frequently prior to the summit. The video shows a young man becoming a Shahid and ascending to heaven. There he meets his beloved and the other Virgins of Paradise, all dancing in bridal gowns among the gardens and the flowing streams, which are the traditional Koranic image of Paradise. On July 24, 2003, PA TV also aired a clip glorifying the Intifada's first female suicide bomber, Wafaa Idris. The lyrics of the song on the video are:
"My sister Wafaa "You chose Shahada And in your death gave life to the power of will. "Oh spirit of a magnificent people That desires self-sacrifice." [18] B. Friday Sermon on PA TV (Praising Shahids) On August 15, 2003, Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris delivered a sermon extolling Shahids at the Sheikh Ijlin Mosque in Gaza City. ".Blessings to you, [sons of] the Palestinian people, people of Jerusalem who sacrifice Shahids in order to preserve the identity of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and its Islamic and Arab identity. The residents of Palestine and Jerusalem are the ones who preserve the existence of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. We bless you, we bless everyone whose blood flows upon this good and pure land. "If a prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque is worth 1,000 prayers at another mosque, then know that a Shahid [who falls] on this land is considered more than one Shahid someplace else. Yes, there are traditions according to which a Shahid here is worth 70 Shahids somewhere else. Every wounded person on this land is comparable to hundreds of wounded [somewhere else]. "The Palestinian people today needs Omar bin Al-Khattab,[19] whose soul was inflamed every time he read Surat Al-Israa [Koran Chapter 17]. Every time he read the verse: 'Holy is He who took his servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Distant Mosque [17:1]', he felt that Al-Aqsa Mosque was asking for his help. And then he organized his army and turned from there [Al-Medina] to here, to Al-Sham [Syria] and to Jerusalem, with the closest companions of the Prophet, in order to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He liberated it from the Christians who had defiled it. He liberated it, but gave them [the Christians] security, with what was later called 'The Pact of Omar.' "Notice, oh worshippers of Allah, the Jews are the most loathsome creatures on the face of the earth. For the Christians, despite their abominations, asked of Omar bin Al-Khattab one condition from among four - not to permit the Jews to live in Palestine. We want people like Salah Al-Din Al-Ayyoubi [Saladin],[20] we want a Salah Al-Din to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, that Salah Al-Din liberated when he heard the cries of the people of Palestine and the people of Syria when they were subject to massacres and abuses. "Since Salah Al-Din liberated Al-Aqsa Mosque and the land of Palestine, this land has been subject to the greed of invaders, until the imperialist attack came, and Palestine was conquered. It was conquered by the British [and because of this] we have relations of blood vengeance. Between Britain and us, there is a lengthy reckoning of blood vengeance that has not been forgotten, even though politics requires it. Was it not Britain that gave what it did not possess, to those who had no right to it? Was it not Britain that gave the Jews a right to establish a state on the land of Palestine, and at the expense of the Palestinian people? Palestine and its holy places are subject to constant aggression. "Hasn't the world heard of the Palestinian detainees who suffer in their [Israel's] jails, when yesterday they were served poisoned meals, because of which perhaps dozens of our imprisoned sons will die? Your brothers in the prisons are subject to the ugliest of Zionist attacks. They are subject to the ugliest of tortures and abuses. You have heard, and all the world has heard, that two days ago our brothers in the houses of detention were served poisoned meals and that more than 50 prisoners are in serious condition because they were given poisoned food."[21] C. Glorification of Shahids in the Press 1. Obituaries for the Bus Bomber in Jerusalem and the Kfar Yabetz (Near Tel Aviv) Bomber Three Palestinian Authority dailies,Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Al-Ayyam, and Al-Quds, published obituaries for Abd Al-Mu'ti Muhammad Salleh Shabana Al-Tamimi, who blew himself up on the No. 14 bus in June 2003 in Jerusalem's Jaffa Road. These obituaries were in the accepted format for such notices, glorifying the bomber and his deed in Islamic terms.[22] The obituary in the PA dailies Al-Hayat Al-Jadida and Al-Ayyam was as follows: "'Among the Believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah: of them some have completed their vow [to sacrifice themselves for Allah in battle], and some (still) wait [to fulfill their vow]: but they never changed it [Koran 33:23].'" 'Announcement of a Shahid's Death' "Palestine-Hebron: The Shahid's brothers and the entire Shabana Al-Tamimi family, in the homeland and outside it, announce to the two nations - the Arab and Muslim nation in general and our Palestinian people, at the battlefront, in particular - the [death] of the Hero ShahidAbd Al-Mu'ti Muhammad Salleh Shabana Al-Tamimi (age 18) who carried out the heroic act in Jaffa Road - June 11, 2003.We pray to Allah to accept him among the prophets, the saints, and the Shahids in whose company it is good to be. "'To Allah we belong and to Him we return' [Koran 2:156] Congratulations on [the death of] the Hero Shahid will be received at the cultural center named for the Companion of the Prophet Tamim Al-Dari, at Mount Abu Ruman, Hebron, for three days beginning yesterday, Thursday, from 16:00 to 19:00." The PA daily Al-Ayyampublished an obituary placed by the Islamic Jihad organization for Ahmad Khairi Fat'hi Yahyah, who carried out the July 7, 2003 suicide bombing at Kfar Yabetz after the declaration of the Hudna. The following is the announcement: "Among the Believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah: of them some have completed their vow [to sacrifice themselves for Allah in battle], and some (still) wait [to fulfill their vow]: but they never changed it [Koran 33:23]. "Announcement of the Death of a Hero Shahid Palestine-Jenin: The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine views with pride and glory the Hero Shahid who is with Allah Ahmad Khairi Fat'hi Yahyah son of Ra'i Village of the Jihad the Shahid who carried out the operation northeast of Tel Aviv last Tuesday, July 7, 2003. We ask Allah to cover him with His great mercy and to lodge him in His Paradise. We announce to our Jihad-fighting people and to our Arab and Muslim nation about the Hero Shahid, and we promise him and all the pure Shahids that we will follow in their path. Jihad [is] either victory or Shahada."[23] 2. Poems Glorifying Shahids in the Palestinian Press The Palestinian daily Al-Qudspublished an article by Sa'id Muhammad Sa'ada that reviewed a collection of poems, Here We Were and Here We Will Be, by Palestinian poet Lutfi Zaghloul. In his article, Sa'ada quotes Zaghloul's qasida (Arabic poem), "Before You, Oh Homeland," that says: ".To you, oh homeland, we drink the cup of death How sweet the cup, how sweet the drink With every additional Shahid, We draw closer to you." In his analysis of the poem, Sa'ada wrote, "The poet Lutfi Zaghloul loved his homeland with a fierce love. The ardency of his love increased because of the desecration of the homeland by plundering, occupation, destruction, and killing. Therefore, the poet - like any other inhabitant of the homeland - did not refrain from offering his soul to redeem the homeland, without fearing the enemy and his murderous deeds. It is to this that we refer when we say that the fierce love in the soul of the poet Zaghloul deviated from the purely moral framework perceived through the senses and moved on from saying theoretical words to actual implementation of this fierce love. The implementation of the emotion was manifested in fighting and defending the homeland, so that it would again be a homeland over which fly the banners of liberation, freedom, and victory, whatever the price in Shahids."[24] Al-Qudsalso published the lyrics to a song by Zaghloul called "A Song of Palestine," which had won first prize at the International Festival of Arab Song in Dubai:
"May my banner fly high,
With the blood of Shahids, I sketch out my tomorrow.
He sacrificed that which is most precious to him, oh my homeland, and the
sweetest days of life The PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadidapublished "Between Seasickness and the Dew on the Window" by Druze poet Sleiman Daghash, who lives in Israel. The following are excerpts:
"Stretch your two fingers in the V-sign 3. Reports and Articles Glorifying Shahids In an interview with Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nuzhah Ziyadeh, also known as Umm Souheil, a 55-year-old woman from the Jebaliya refugee camp who had "sacrificed two of her sons as Shahids for the sake of Allah," expressed "pride and a sense of honor that Allah had honored her with the martyrdom of her two sons Souheil and Muhammad, and made their wish come true." The paper called Umm Souheil "Al-Khansaa" - referring to the mother of Shahids in Islamic history.[27] The paper quoted Umm Souheil, (mother of Souheil), as saying in the interview, "Souheil was a paragon of sacrifice and love of the homeland to be imitated. He went out at noon on a Thursday in May 2002, after refusing to eat the lunch I prepared for him. He was wearing his weapon and his bag, and he went to eastern Gaza. He fought the enemies of Allah until he martyred himself after evening prayers. I awoke suddenly at 11 at night, and saw my sons Maher and Muhammad perturbed. I tried to extract information from them, but I was not successful. I prayed to Allah until Muhammad came to me and told me the news. I broke into cries of joy and turned to my daughters so they could congratulate their brother Souheil on his Shahada. "[Souheil] was known for his courage and resourcefulness. He never missed a chance to confront the infidels. He participated in destroying an armored personnel carrier in the area of Beit Lahiya. He also participated in the operation in which the nuclear researcher was killed in the Elei Sinai settlement. [Souheil] had great experience in preparing bombs, guided bombs, and missiles. We have no honor except in Jihad and martyrdom. We have no honor except in self-sacrifice, persistence, and steadfastness." The newspaper report continued, "Umm Souheil went on with the stories of the heroism and sacrifice, and said that her second son Muhammad would entreat his brother Souheil to agree to send him to carry out a martyrdom operation, and he even complained to those responsible for him that his brother was preventing him from fulfilling his wish. Souheil's response was that he could not send him and could not prevent him, and that he needed his mother's permission. Umm Souheil added, 'I tried to persuade him at first to change his mind, but he insisted, and then I told him: Do what you want, I cannot prevent you.' She added that Muhammad died a martyr's death on July 14, 2002, that is, two months after his brother was martyred: 'He died on the roof of the home of a group of friends who were carrying out their daily preparation of explosives. Suddenly I heard the sound of a powerful explosion, and then two of Muhammad's friends emerged carrying him, with blood covering his face. After a few meters he fell from their hands onto the ground. When I realized that he had martyred himself, I turned to him, kissed him, and praised Allah that he had gained the Shahada he had sought. He had participated in all the confrontations with the occupation forces.'"[28] In an article for the PA daily Al-Quds,Palestinian Legislative Council member Imad Al-Hamid Al-Falouji mentioned Al-Khansaa in the same breath as national Palestinian icons such as Arafat and Fares 'Ouda:[29] ". At the forefront of our [Palestinian] people are [those] like the ShahidFares 'Ouda and [other] Shahids,and [like] the leader [Arafat] standing at the battlefront in times of peace and times of siege. [and like] the prisoners standing, with empty stomachs, against the jailors as models of determination, facing the challenge, and standing with pride, and the Palestinian women like Al-Khansaa, giving birth to these heroes as in their eyes appears the determination to remain and endure life's hardships."[30] The PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadidapublished an article by Tarek Daraghma, head of the Association of Families of Shahids in the Tubas district, in which he wrote: ". If it is true to say that the Shahids are the most honorable people, and that there is no argument or doubt about this, then why do we not wish their sons, daughters, wives, fathers, and mothers well? Why do we not understand the sensitivity of the situation?. The family of the one whom Allah loves and whom He has chosen [to carry out] Shahadaneeds a great deal of [assistance]. Do not, whether intentionally or unintentionally, make those who sacrifice their sons and daughters for the homeland go door to door in search of food."[31] 4. Cartoons: Anti-Israel (and Anti-American), and Encouraging Suicide Operations Following the Aqaba summit, the Palestinian press continued to publish anti-Israeli (and anti-American) cartoons, as well as cartoons encouraging suicide attacks. Examples of such cartoons are those by Omayya Juha, a cartoonist for the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, while her husband was, until his death, an activist for the military wing of Hamas, Iz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades.[32] Juha is the most popular Palestinian cartoonist, and her website, www.omayya.com, was recently chosen as "Best Arab Cartoon Website."[33] For years, Juha has produced anti-Israel (and anti-American) cartoons showing, for example, Israel (and the U.S.) as snakes and Sharon (and Bush) murdering children in cold blood, as well as cartoons glorifying suicide bombings. Since the Aqaba summit, Juha has continued to produce these cartoons, and Al-Hayat Al-Jadida continues to publish them. Examples include one that appeared the day after the No. 14 bus suicide bombing in Jerusalem, showing the torn body parts of a man who was blown up; Israel in the form of a spider; the U.S. as an octopus strangling Saddam Hussein and killing his two sons Uday and Qusay; Sharon as a child-murderer under the aegis of the U.S.; Israel as a child murderer; and an antisemitic cartoon: Israel, as represented by a bloodstained man wearing a skullcap, participates in an economic conference (see Appendix III). Other media also publish cartoons that incite violence. The Palestinian daily Al-Qudsprinted an antisemitic cartoon showing a crucified Palestinian and Iraqi, to stress that the Jews were crucifying them like they had allegedly crucified Jesus (see Appendix III). The official Palestinian Authority information website, http://www.ipc.gov.ps, posted photos of children carrying weapons,[34] and pictures of armed "resisters to the occupation (see Appendix IV)." The site also provides links to "important Palestinian sites" such as the main publication of the Fatah movement http://www.yafa-news.com, which is headed by the motto "Arab Palestine, from the Sea to the River," and the site http://www.palestine-info.info, identified with the Hamas movement. D. Other Ways of Glorifying Shahids 1. Summer Camps Educating to Shahada A large number of summer camps were named after Shahids, without distinction between whether they were involved in attacks in the Palestinian territories or carried out suicide bombings within the Green Line. The following is a partial roundup of some camps that were mentioned in the Palestinian media:
Two summer camps were named after the first female suicide bomber Wafaa
Idris, in Qalqiliya and in the Al-Am'ari refugee camp;[35] The Khan Yunis municipality named a street after the Shahid Osama Al-Najjar, who was known as the spokesman of Fatah's military wing Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, and who died during a conflict with the IDF near Netzarim in the Gaza Strip. Khan Yunis Mayor Dr. Osama Al-Fara emphasized the importance of the event, which, in his words, "honored the spirit of the Shahid Osama Al-Najjar."[49] In the Jebaliya refugee camp, the Association of Families of Shahids inaugurated a building in memory of the Shahids from the camp, as well as an "Archive of Nobility and Pride," which included the names of 750 Shahids from the northern district of Gaza who had died from 1967 to the present. Attending the ceremony were members of the Palestinian Legislative Council and ministers. Minister for Social Affairs Intisar Al-Wazir delivered a speech on behalf of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, saying: "The names of the Shahids who made the motto of independence a reality will continue to be a sign and a paragon that the Jebaliya refugee camp will place on the land of the homeland, and they [the Shahids] will be remembered because of their sacrifice for the land and for the homeland. The Palestinian people, that continues to sacrifice and to stand fast, believes in the necessity of victory and the completion of its just mission."[50] E. Palestinian Officials Encourage Violence and Shahada PA Chairman Yasser Arafat met in his headquarters, the Muqata'a, in Ramallah,with children from summer camps in Jerusalem and its environs, and told them: "A boy from among our boys and a girl from among our girls will wave the flag of Palestine above the walls of Jerusalem, its mosques, and its churches." He also led the chants, "In spirit and in blood we will redeem you, oh Palestine," "millions of Shahidim marching to Jerusalem," and added, "Oh comrades of the path and of the journey, Oh comrades of the path of Fares Ouda, I ask of you that you call this day Fares Ouda day. together and shoulder to shoulder to Jerusalem."[51] Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fatah,issued a communique announcing that the organization would continue to carry out "martyrdom operations. in order to unravel the threads of the plot called Sharm Al-Sheikh and the Aqaba summit."[52] After the announcement of the intention to transfer the wanted men who had taken refuge in the Muqat'a to Jericho, another Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades communiqué urged "standing against the traitors and the agents. Any hand reached out [to harm] the Mujaheddeenwho defend our land and our people must be severed, and must be seen as a Zionist hand. Similarly, we call on all the heroes, Jihad warriors, and those willing to martyr themselves, to carry out their operations within the plundering [Zionist] entity, so as to shake the ground under their feet and to thwart their plans."[53] In Bethleham, during a party held in his honor for the Palestinian factions, Ahmad Jbarra (Abu Sukar), one of the prisoners released by Israel a day before the Aqaba summit, indirectly called for the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers so they could be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners: "There is no security or peace for this rabble [Israel] without the release of the prisoners. I remind all the national and Islamic factions that in exchange for three Jewish solders, 1,150 [Palestinian] prisoners were released in the famous exchange [i.e. in 1983, between Israel and Ahmad Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command]." He continued: "[Israel] is a powerful country with weapons of mass destruction, but the Jews love life while we love freedom and are willing to die for it. Our Shahids are in Paradise and their dead are in Hell."[54] F. Anti-American Incitement In his weekly column in the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Palestinian Legislative Council member Nahed Munir Al-Rayyis connected the "[Christian Fundamentalist] vision of Armageddon," and the vision of "the Zionists and of those who act like Zionists" with the actions of American presidents who supported Israel. He said that those who act like Zionists and believed in the "vision of Armageddon," who were now in power in the U.S., "have become the sole rulers of the world, and have begun to act like those who light the sulfur fires." Al-Rayyis enumerated the "Zionist" American presidents - Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, George Bush Sr., and Bill Clinton - and then discussed George W. Bush, saying that the source of American politics is actually Israeli politics. Proof of this, he says, is that "even the American occupation forces in Iraq seek guidance from and imitate the Israeli occupation in its [Israel's] war on the Palestinians. Even the U.S. chief of staff could find no other name for his special units sent to suppress the Iraqi resistance besides 'Unit 101,' after the unit headed by Ariel Sharon that was set up by the Israeli occupation army at the beginning of the occupation of Palestine 50 years ago ." Al-Rayyis went on to say that what was lacking now was to bring Hollywood to the battlefront, as Hollywood was a contributor to the incitement against the Arabs and the Muslims, based on the words of evangelists who were acting like Zionists. To underline the connection between Hollywood and the Jews, Al-Rayyis listed key Jewish individuals in Hollywood, and then concluded his article with a quote by "non-Zionist American writer Grace Halsell, that this behavior will, with the knowledge of the evangelistic Zionists, lead 'directly to a holocaust indescribably more savage and widespread than could have [been] generated in Adolf Hitler's criminal mind.'"[55] Appendices Appendix I: Palestinian Incitement from the Release of the Road Map to the Aqaba Summit A. Arafat's Speech Marking International Day of the Child 2003, to Children of Palestinian Prisoners and Detainees Held by Israel, The Muqata'a, Ramallah[56] "Oh my dears, oh lion cubs [boys] of Palestine, oh, flowers [girls] of Palestine, oh, future of Palestine, oh power and splendor of Palestine. "From you [came] the world hero, Fares 'Ouda. He is the symbol of the Palestinian people, who stands in heroism, pride, and willpower with the Palestinian stone facing the Israeli tank. "This is the people of heroes that does not fear the tank, and does not fear the airplane, and does not fear the missile, and they cling to their place until Judgment Day. The Prophet [Muhammad] said: 'A group from among you will remain. standing on guard against your enemies. Their enemies will not triumph over them, and they will triumph, with Allah's help.' "Thus it was said to the Messenger [Muhammad]: 'Where are they [the members of that group]? 'Who are they [the members of that group]?' [The Prophet Muhammad said]: '[They are] from Jerusalem its environs, from Jerusalem and its environs. And they stand [against their enemies] until Judgment Day, and every Shahid among them [is worth] 40 Shahids among you.' "To whom did [the Prophet] say this? To his companions! He said to them: 'One Shahid from those [fighting for Jerusalem] is equal in value to 40 Shahids from [his companions]. This is the privilege Allah has given to you, oh boys and girls of Palestine." B. Friday Sermon by Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris, Gaza Mosque - May 5, 2003[57] "The Jews cannot influence the actions of our youth and children. But for you, Allah has chosen Shahada [martyrdom], in order to choose from among you the Shahids of the people of Palestine. Allah chose from amongst us Shahids, as the poet says: He who does not die by the sword dies in another way. Causes are many, while death is one. And the proof of this is, as Allah says: Death will reach you even in your beds. Those who were destined to die will be exposed, even in their beds. That is, they would die not by Shahada. Allah has honored our youth, our people, and our nation, by choosing you and by choosing from among you the Shahids, oh people of Palestine. Therefore, you are worthy to receive a blessing while you cling to this land. "Is the Shahid dead like the other dead, which requires us to offer condolences and mourn with his family, friends, and relatives? Or is the Shahid enjoying virtues and the ability to perform miracles, which gives us the right to congratulate the Shahid and his family? The Shahid, oh servants of Allah, is not dead like all the other dead. Nay, we have no right to say about him that he is dead, and this is according to a decision from above seventh heaven, by Allah himself, as a privilege for the Shahids. This is mentioned in two Koran chapters. Allah forbids you to say that the Shahid is dead, saying [in the Koran]: 'Do not say that they who die for Allah are dead, rather they are alive, but you do not notice.' [169:3] "We cannot imagine the [Shahids'] lives. They leave a wretched, base life in this world in order to ascend and live, next to Allah, a life that only Allah knows. The Shahids live next to Allah and they have the qualities of living people, and they are sustained as the living are in this world. But, oh believers, how great is the difference between this livelihood and that, how great is the difference between livelihood in this wretched and lowly world and the livelihood that Allah alone knows - there, near the throne of the Lord. Blessings to the Shahids, as they are alive, sustained next to their Lord. They are joyful as we are joyful in this world. But what a difference is there between our joy and theirs! There is a difference between our mundane joy and their joy, there in paradise; 'They are joyful in the grace that Allah has bestowed upon them.' Then they bring good tidings and seek good tidings for their brothers who have not joined them. "They do not know the fear of this world, and they are not saddened, as they were sad in this world. There is no reason to worry about them, and they are not sad. They are the Shahids, the Shahids who are in the heavens, next to Allah. as the Shahids are indeed in the highest paradise. The superior qualities and miracles of the Shahids are too numerous to count, since Allah alone knows them. But, what do we know of these miracles?! Listen to the words of your Prophet when he counts the Shahid's virtues. Therefore, we have the right to congratulate the Shahids' families, and not extend condolences and sorrow for the Shahids, if they [sacrifice themselves] for Allah. "Whoever fights so that the word of Allah will be supreme, fights for the sake of Allah. Therefore, these Shahids, by Allah, is it not enough for you that [such a Shahid] is forgiven with his first drop of blood? Is it not enough for you that the Shahid is saved from the agony of death, of which the Prophet said: Death involves agony from which no one is spared, except for the Shahids. Even the prophets, the messengers, and the angels, on the day of their death, are not spared this. But the Shahid is spared the agony of death. This is one of the miracles of the Shahid. Is it not enough that the Shahid. weds 72 black-eyed [virgins]? Is it not enough for the Shahid's family that he vouchsafe for 70 of his relatives? Is it not enough for the Shahid that they dress him in garments of glory on the day of resurrection? "Is it not fitting for the Shahid that his soul lives inside the vitals of the green birds of paradise circling around the throne of honor? Is it not enough for the Shahid, that when Allah asks him what is his wish, he will be the only one to answer: I want to be returned to the world in order to be killed for You ten times, oh Lord. And Allah will say then: I have already ruled regarding them that they will not return to this world. "When the Shahid sees the grace of martyrdom and death for the sake of Allah, he will wish to return to this world to be killed in it ten times. The Shahid, oh servants of Allah, dwells in the highest paradise, together with the righteous and the prophets. The Shahid - it is not enough for him that he does not feel the blow of the sword or the pain of death or of the killing, rather, as one of you feels a [wasp] sting, as in the words of the Prophet. This is the grace of the Shahid. The Shahid is in the heavens, with Allah. And blessings to our Shahids and may Allah have mercy on our Shahids and take them under His wing and avenge their blood." Appendix II: A Palestinian Peace Song
Oh! pretty bird
Oh freedom.
Oh my pretty bird Oh freedom.
The freedom stands on love
Oh, my soul voice Oh freedom.
Oh freedom.
We are the tale
My homeland, my mother
Oh freedom
My wings are broken
My wings are broken
Appendix III: Cartoons
[see The following are examples of cartoons published in the Palestinian press: one that appeared the day after the No. 14 bus suicide bombing in Jerusalem, showing torn body parts of a man who blew up; Israel in the form of a spider; the U.S. as an octopus strangling Saddam Hussein and killing his two sons Uday and Qusay; Sharon as a child-murderer under the aegis of the U.S.; and Israel as a child murderer. Also included are cartoons with an antisemitic motif: Israel, represented by a bloodstained man wearing a skullcap, participates in an economic conference; and another of the Palestinian people and the Iraqi people crucified like the Jews allegedly crucified Jesus.
Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (PA), June 12, 2003. Appendix IV: Photos of children carrying weapons and of armed "resisters to the occupation" posted on the Palestinian National Authority State Information Service website www.ipc.gov.ps: Appendix IV:
Photos of children carrying weapons and of armed "resisters to the
occupation" posted on the Palestinian National Authority State Information
Service website :
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/photo%20gallery/photo/pal/a/0002.jpg * Y. Yehoshua and B. Tchernitzky are Research Fellows at MEMRI.
[1] http://www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=11&id=54 The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East. Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on request. MEMRI holds copyrights on all translations. Materials may only be used with proper attribution.
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