Posted on 03/04/2004 10:27:14 AM PST by knighthawk
The Palestinian Authority's (PA) chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, is the latest PA official to demonstrate that PA leaders send one message to their people in Arabic and an entirely different message to the world media in English.
This week's news includes a striking example of this duplicity. Upon hearing that three Palestinian children, aged 13, 14 and 16, were caught by Israel on the way to a suicide mission, Erekat was quick to create the impression for the English media that the PA opposes such actions.
"That´s absolutely unacceptable," Erekat told the Associated Press. "Our children should have hope and a future and should not be suicide bombers. We want them to be doctors and engineers."
The great hypocrisy of Erekat's statement is that he and the PA leadership have been the driving force indoctrinating PA children to aspire to Shahada - Death for Allah. As PMW has reported, it was only a few months ago that Erekat and other top PA leaders, including Yasser Arafat, sponsored a soccer tournament honoring 24 Shahids ("Islamic Martyrs"), including such arch-terrorists as Yechya Ayash, the first Hamas suicide-bomb maker, who masterminded the Palestinian suicide bombings; Adin Al Kassam, the name of the suicide terrorist wing of the Hamas; Raid Carmi, a regional head of a suicide terrorist unit; Jamal Mansour of Hamas; and Salah Drowza of Hamas.
As a sponsor, Saeb Erekat was present at the tournament honoring the terrorists, and personally distributed the trophies. [Al Ayyam, Sept. 21, 2003, Al Quds, Sept. 29, 2003]
The coverage by the PA media of the foiled suicide mission is also telling. Although all three PA dailies -- Al Hayat Al Jadida, Al Ayyam and Al Quds -- covered the capture of the teenagers, there were no reports in these papers or in other PA Arabic media of any comments by Erekat opposing the idea of teenagers as suicide bombers.
So while in English, Erekat's diversion for the media is, "We want them to be doctors and engineers," in their real world, Palestinian children see suicide terrorists as the role models created for them by Erekat and the PA leadership. We have yet to read that Erekat or the PA has sponsored a tournament named for doctors and engineers.
Finally, two additional PA reactions to the capture of the three teenagers are noteworthy: 1. "The Prisoner's Club called on all the legal institutions to act to stop [Israel's] policy of arresting children and minors... which is a violation of all conventions and international humanitarian agreements." [Al Ayyam March 3, 2004]
2. The parents of the three "called for legal and humanitarian organizations to intervene for their release so that they could continue their education." [Al Ayyam March 3, 2004]
Instead of focusing on why the teenagers were arrested, they present these would-be assassins as victims -- just as Palestinian society, at the same time that it promotes and glorifies terror, continues to present itself as the victim.
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PMW has extensively documented the ways in which the PA and PA-controlled media have consistently motivated Palestinian children to seek Shahada. For more information, check out the following links: 1. MUSIC VIDEOS the PA produced and broadcast hundreds of times defining Shahada death for Allah as "sweet". 2. PMW bulletin on a soccer tournament for 12- year- old boys named for the suicide terrorist who killed 31 at Passover Seder 3. PMW bulletins on summer camps named for woman suicide terrorists Wafa Idris and Ayyat Al Akhras
4. PMW site - http://www.pmw.org.il/new/
I don't think that Israel should interfere with the "martyrdom operations" of these kids. They should be isolated from all Israelis and the process should be completed.
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