PA Radio: One Day Israel 'Will be Palestine Again'

Is there any hope for peace when the Palestinian Authority continues to strive towards the destruction of the Jewish state?

By Ari Soffer -- ArutzSheva 7

First Publish: 8/19/2013, 5:14 PM

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas

Flash 90

 

As "peace talks" continue apace, prompted on by the ever-optimistic John Kerry, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), an NGO dedicated to monitoring hate speech, anti-Israel rhetoric and incitement to violence in the Palestinian Arab media, has highlighted yet another inflammatory statement by official PA organs.

During a special "holiday broadcast" on 8th August in honor of the Muslim festival of Eid el-Fitr, the PA's official radio station expressed its hope and certainty that the State of Israel, referred to as "occupied Palestine", would eventually cease to exist.

The statement, made by a Voice of Palestine radio broadcaster, was directed towards Israel's Arab population (see below to hear the recording):
"Greetings to all our listeners and happy holiday to you, our people in occupied Palestine [i.e. Israel], 1948 Palestine, the 1948 territories [i.e. Israel, created in 1948]... Greetings to our people in Acre, Nazareth, Tiberias, Haifa and Jaffa [all Israeli cities - ed.]... May your Palestinian identity be rooted in your hearts and minds. Allah willing, one day Palestine will be Palestine again!"

Palestinian Media Watch has repeatedly exposed how - despite the PA's commitments and claims to the international community that it recognizes Israel - official PA media regularly denies Israel's right to exist and very often denies Israel's very existence. By calling Israel "occupied Palestine," PA radio implicitly recognizes Israel's existence, while explicitly denying Israel's right to exist, the organization said in a statement.

Despite the start of much-lauded "peace talks" between Israel and the PA, Arutz Sheva has reported on a string of PMW exposes of the continued campaign of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda and incitement to violence by the PA via its official organs.

Last week, the official Facebook page of the Presidential Guard of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas denied the Jewish connection to the Kotel (Western Wall).

A week before, the PA's official TV station broadcast a crudely anti-Semitic program which legitimized violence against Jews in Judea and Samaria, who were stereotyped as violent thieves. The end of the program glorified the humiliation of a religious Jew by cutting off his peyot side-curls, in a scene chillingly reminiscent of Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda.

Other Ramadan broadcasts include a re-run of a music video encouraging violence against Israelis, and the glorification of the murderer of 61 Israeli civilians on the official Facebook page of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.

Recently, an anchor on the PA's official news station declared that a future "Palestinian state" would extend from Rosh Hanikra in northern Israel to Eilat in the south - effectively wiping Israel off the map.

These incidents and others led to Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu complaining directly to US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been pushing the Israeli government to enter into talks with the PA.

Many Israelis will be asking themselves how constructive such talks can be with a partner that continues to declare its intention to eventually wipe Israel off the map.

But in spite of Netanyahu's complaints, and the concerns of ordinary Israelis, and even as world leaders criticize Israeli plans to build in Jerusalem as hindering talks, there has been little-to-no mention of continued PA incitement. Indeed, Israeli and Jewish commentators have pointed out in the past few weeks that whilst the Israeli government is subject to widespread pressure to make concessions to encourage "good will," no such requirements are made of the Palestinian Authority.

Last month, following a wave of pressure against Israel from the EU and US, ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman claimed that the international community was giving the PA a "free pass," and called on the EU in particular to end its “long-standing habit of not holding the Palestinian Authority responsible for its actions and inactions that are unequivocally obstacles to peace."

The continued silence of the international community only strengthens that impression.