Talking with Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch

Joan Brunwasser
Palestinian Media Watch
OpEdNews.com
13 May '10

JB: My guest today is Itamar Marcus, founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch. Welcome to OpEdNews, Itamar. Please tell our readers what Palestinian Media Watch is and why you felt compelled to create it.

IM: PMW was established 14 years ago. Since then, we have been reading the three daily Palestinian newspapers, watching and video recording Palestinian Authority official TV and studying all their schoolbooks. Our goal is to get an accurate picture of the internal Arabic language Palestinian world and especially what Palestinian leadership is saying to their children. We feel that if there is to be peace, it has to start with children and has to be founded on peace education. Therefore, what children are being taught in schools and what they are learning from music videos and children's media are a better indicator of the real beliefs and goals of the leaders, and will also determine if we have peace in the next generation.

Our conclusion, unfortunately, has been that there are two different worlds: the English language world for foreign consumption and the Arabic language world for internal consumption and there is often no resemblance between the two.

JB: How different is that from what goes on in Israel? You enjoy real freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Israel. So, Arabs, and especially Palestinians, are often vociferously attacked in the Israeli media, aren't they?

IM: Arabs and Palestinians are never attacked in Israel for what they are. In fact, in Israel, it is against the law to incite. Palestinians are verbally attacked for terror promotion and terror support. After the terror attack in 2008, in which 8 Israeli teenagers were murdered by a Palestinian terrorist who murdered them while they were studying in a high school library, the New York Times reported that 84% of Palestinians supported the attack and killings. This is the kind of thing that makes Israelis angry and critical of Palestinians. The Palestinians have named summer camps and soccer tournaments for kids after Palestinian suicide terrorists. This likewise brings anger and condemnation.

JB: Did something specific happen fourteen years ago to impel you to create PMW?

IM: Israel and the Palestinians were at the beginning of a peace process but, instead of bringing peace, under the new Arafat-led Palestinian Authority, terror was worse than ever before. There had never been a suicide bomber in Israel until Yassir Arafat was allowed into the region. We felt it was necessary to see if the peace Arafat was promoting in English was also being promoted in Arabic. Unfortunately, we found that the worst of our suspicions and fears had been correct. In Arabic, Palestinians were being fed systematic anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hate propaganda. The goodwill that had been built between Israelis and Palestinians for many years was being undermined by this continuous demonization under the new Palestinian Authority.

(Read full interview)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.