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Northern Israel called "1948 lands," "occupied lands" on PA TV kids show

 
Northern Israel called
"1948 lands" and "occupied territories"
on PA TV kids program

by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

A children's program on official Palestinian Authority television presents Northern Israel to Palestinian children as "occupied territories" and "1948 lands."

A recent episode of The Best Home on PA TV takes a group of children on a trip to Tiberias and the Galilee in Northern Israel. During a break, the kids are told that they are on "occupied land" and "1948 land," the PA's way to describe all of Israel as "occupied" since its founding in 1948. The children are never told they are in Israel, and when referring to places in Israel, the PA TV host says "How beautiful our land is."

In the Golan Heights, the children are told by the Israeli-Arab guide that they are "at the exact border between Palestine and Syria," again portraying a world in which Israel doesn't exist and is replaced by "Palestine."

As Palestinian Media Watch has reported, teaching children that all of Israel is "Palestine," "1948 lands" and "occupied territories" is an essential component of the PA's education to deny Israel's legitimacy and existence. PA-controlled media and Palestinian academics likewise routinely refer to all of Israel, including such Israeli cities as Jaffa and Haifa, as Palestinian cities, or as "occupied."

Click to see more examples of the PA's denial of Israel's right to exist.

Following is the transcript from the program.

"We're on a trip in the 1948 lands. On our right is Baqa Al-Gharbiya (village in Israel) , the land [home] of many friends of our program. We're on our way [to see] many beautiful areas so that you can get to know them and see how beautiful our land is, and how many beautiful places it has -- beautiful villages and cities. We're in the north of the occupied lands, the 1948 lands (Israel), on the Lebanese border."

Tour guide: "We're now at the Golan Heights border (inside Israel). We are at the exact border between Palestine and Syria."
[PA TV (Fatah), Oct. 22, 2010]

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