Palestinian Media Watch reported this week on the latest examples of incitement broadcast by official Palestinian Authority television.
In the latest instance of PA incitement, presented to Palestinian children as a supposedly educational message, the association between Israel and Satan is reinforced. A Fatah TV cartoon broadcast in honour of Ramadan depicts Jews as agents of the Satan who do evil on earth.
The cartoon centres on the theme that the Satans are scheming to fight and destroy Muhammad, and in order to achieve this, they seek the help of the Jews. However, the Satan become upset when the Jews leave Medina (now part of modern-day Saudi Arabia) without having fought Muhammad, thereby allowing the Islamic prophet to gain an unopposed victory.
Viewers are then taught that one of the Satans plants the idea in the minds of the Jews to organise all their tribes against Muhammad so that the Jews can regain their prestige. The plan is ultimately shown to be a fruitful one because the Satan knows “the burning hate and loathing of Muhammad and his supporters that fills the hearts of the Jews”.
The broadcast goes on to make one further incendiary claim that Muhammad, in preparation for battle, dug trenches to protect himself from the Jews in spite of the fact that he had a treaty with them because, as one Muslim character explains: “since when do Jews keep their treaties?”.
PA TV stations have frequently broadcast messages comparing Israel to Satan; in recent times broadcasting a poem, which has since been recited by Palestinian children six times on PA TV, which teaches that ‘Zion is Satan with a tail’. Similarly, in 2013, PA TV portrayed the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians as “a conflict between two entities, good and evil, between two projects: Allah’s project vs. Satan’s project”.
While PA officials speak to Western audiences of their determination to reach peace with Israel, a different message is presented to their domestic audience, PMW reports.
Glorification of terror and violence against Jews and Israel has been extensively documented in the official Palestinian Authority-controlled media, as well as in school textbooks.
