Palestinians Dance - On And Off Television
Palestinians danced for joy in the streets of
several Palestinian Authority cities when they
heard the news of the World Trade Center attack
- but many foreign television viewers may never
know this. Several television stations were
warned by the Palestinian Authority not to
broadcast the film clips of the Palestinian
celebrations, and Palestinian reporters working
for foreign stations in PA areas were physically
threatened for having filmed the scenes. The BBC
last night screened pictures of thousands of
joyous Palestinians, including policemen, in
Shechem, Gaza, and eastern Jerusalem - but
today, BBC reported that it was only a "handful"
of celebrants.
CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour's
review of Arab reactions did not include the
Palestinian expressions of joy. However, the
station used the celebration film clips to pose
some hard questions to PA spokesperson Hanan
Ashrawi. Ashrawi had said earlier that the
Palestinian people "deplore and condemn these
terrible acts." The anchorwoman then asked
Ashrawi how, then, she explains "the scenes that
we will now show you and the world audience" -
and the joyous scenes of cheering Arabs flashed
across the screen more than once. Ashrawi,
looking pained, said that these were just a few
people, that they were children - although many
adults could be seen participating in the
celebrations - and that at the time they did not
know the full significance of the attacks.
Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, asked
shortly afterwards by CNN about the Palestinian
celebrations, said that the terrorism in the U.S.
was a result of continuous incitement by
"Chairman Arafat and his media… But I don't
think that this [the Palestinian reaction] is the main
issue right now. The main thing is that the world
must unite against terrorism…"
King Abdullah of Jordan also attempted to
explain the joyous Palestinians as a "small
minority." He added that the attack would not
have happened had peace been attained last year.
Former American mediator Dennis Ross
disagreed. He blamed the Palestinian leadership
for constantly talking about martyrdom and
struggle and the like, and said that the Arab
nations will "simply have to stop using their media
as a release for their outrage and anger... and to
create a climate of legitimacy for this behavior...
They will have to be made to understand that
there's no free lunch..." He said that even if peace
had been attained last year, the attack would
have occurred, because "these terrorists don't
believe in peace, they don't believe in Israel's
existence, they reject everything that we
represent. These groups have to be completely
discredited. [Can this be done?] Well, we all
have to transform our thinking. Yesterday was a
transforming event. We will have to create a new
priority in terms of our war on terror. We will
have to form a very different international
coalition [to root this out psychologically and
practically]. But I don't think that we can just sit
back and say that because it's a difficult task we
can't take it on. We've now been confronted with
something that is worse than any war, in terms of
casualties in a single day, and our thinking has to
change drastically as well."
MTV Arab Affairs reporter Moshe Katz reports
that storeowners in Baka el-Garbiye (in pre-1967
Israel) distributed free food to passersby when
they heard the news. Arab leaders refused to
respond when contacted by Katz for their
response. Others told him that they were afraid
for their lives if they were to condemn the attacks.
Official Iraqi television broadcast the following
commentary, with the exploding World Trade
Center in the background: " The American
cowboy is reaping the fruits of his crimes against
humanity... America [is] tasting the bitter defeat of
its crimes and disregard for peoples' will to lead a
free, decent life. The massive explosions in the
centers of power in America, notably the
Pentagon, is a painful slap in the face of US
politicians to stop their illegitimate hegemony and
attempts to impose custodianship on peoples...
The collapse of US centers of power is a collapse
of the US policy, which deviates from human
values and stands by world Zionism at all
international forums to continue to slaughter the
Palestinian Arab people and implement US plans
to dominate the world under the cover of what is
called the new [world] order."
For more Arab reactions to the attacks on the
United States, see Arutz-7's Arab Press Survey
on our website
"www.a7.IsraelNationalNews.com".