PA paper: Jews fan flames of evil

A new article blaming Jews for "fanning the flames of evil and provoking wars" has appeared in the Palestinian Authority's official newspaper, Al Hayat Al Jadida.

It was written by Muhammad Khalifa, Executive Director of the United Arab Emirates-based Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-Up.

The article, published last week, and made available to Ynetnews by Palestinian Media Watch is filled with conspirational anti-Semitic rhetoric, in which Jews are said to be in control of a global stockmarket, plotting a third world war, and aiming for "global domination."

"There is one global stock market situated in New York, and it is controlled by Jews… In order for this idea to be realized, it was necessary to initiate wars, because wars are a customary (practice) of the Jews… as they did in the first and second World Wars," the article said.

"In conclusion, the role of the Jews in fanning the flames of evil, and fuelling the fire, and provoking wars - such as the war against Iraq – will inevitably cause the downfall of the American military power... and the beginning of World War III," it concluded.

Speaking to Ynetnews, Itamar Marcus, Director of Palestinian Media Watch, an organization which closely monitors the Palestinian media, described the piece as a "vicious anti-Semitic article."

'Classical anti-Semitism from Abbas' media’

"It's pure classical anti-Semitism, and a perfect example of the type of incitement to hatred that is regular," Marcus added.

"When you're pumping out pure hatred, you're guaranteeing that at some point it's going to explode in violence, and that's what we're seeing now," Marcus warned. "And I stress, this is coming from (PA President) Mahmoud Abbas. This isn't coming from Hamas."

"Al Hayat Al Jadida is a paper owned by the Palestinian Authority and controlled by Fatah," Marcus added.

"The media is in the hands of Mahmoud Abbas. Right after the (Palestinian) elections, he transferred the control of the newspaper and television to the office of the president. So he now controls them. And we have seen an increase in incitement to hatred," said Marcus.

"There have been numerous programs depicting all of Israel as occupied Palestine. There's one program, a documentary about Jaffa, that has been played close to 20 times in the last six months, most recently less than a week ago. It literally portrays Jaffa as occupied Palestine. And the words of the document are from a poem which says: 'Get out of my sea, get out of my land, get out of my country, get away, don't even die here, take your memories' - A pure call for the expulsion of all Israelis from all of Israel, not just the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."

Such programming ensured the conflict will continue, and "wouldn't be happening if there was any intention of bringing about peace," Marcus added.

Finger on the pulse

Marcus told Ynetnews that an increase in incitement signaled an impending escalation of the conflict. Noting a switch in media content to "incitement to violence, murder and genocide in the summer of 2000," Palestinian Media Watch staff members became convinced Israel was on the eve of a terror war, and published a warning just before the outbreak of the intifada.

Two months before the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, Palestinian Media Watch published a report entitled "Hamas plans to kidnap Israeli soldiers."

The warning was based on statements made by Hamas officials in the Palestinian media. "By reading the open sources, we can always tell exactly which way they're going," Marcus explained, adding: "Right now, it's not in the interest of Abbas to have violence, so he's stopping the (incitement to) violence, but he doesn't want the violence to disappear from the mentality, so he's keeping up the (incitement to) hatred. There is no indication of any change in the long term policy."

'Children being programmed for war'

"If this continues, we will never have peace," Marcus said. He added: "When you tell children, over and over again, that Jaffa, Akko and Haifa belong to them, even if there's a peace treaty that will be signed on paper later on, those children, a certain percentage of them, will go out and continue violence, because they will not see it as justice. For them, justice is being portrayed as the destruction of Israel. It's going to guarantee war for the next generation. It has to be stopped immediately. And then we need a detoxification campaign. Not just to stop it. They have to be literally detoxified."