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Boy taught to shoot at Jews – “the enemy” - in special Ramadan series on PA TV about Arab village

Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik  |
  • The Jews are "cowards," "impure schemers", "can't be trusted", and may rape the Arab women

  • "The British are a snake in the grass"

During the current month of Ramadan, official Palestinian Authority TV is broadcasting a series called Children of the Village Chief. The series portrays Arab life around the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and afterwards in a village in what was until the Six-Day War in 1967, the "West Bank" of the Kingdom of Jordan.

The first program starts with the so-called Palestinian "Nakba" - the "catastrophe" of the creation of Israel - and continues until the 1980s. In the series, which deals primarily with daily life during this period, attitudes to Israel and Jews are likewise expressed. 

In one episode, a boy around the age of 10 asks his uncle to teach him how to use a rifle because he wants to shoot at "the Jews." The uncle willingly answers his nephew's request, explaining that he should only aim at "your enemy," who the boy then identifies as "the Jews":  
 

Nephew Fares: "Uncle Ibrahim, I want you to teach me how to use the rifle"
Uncle Ibrahim: "Why do you want to learn to shoot?"
Fares: "So that if the Jews come to the village, I'll shoot them like you shot them at Khirbet Al-Loz." ...
Ibrahim: "Fares, your weapon will only be pointed at your enemy, and you know who your enemy is."
Fares: "The Jews, who removed us from our land and our homes, like they removed us from Khirbet Al-Loz."
Ibrahim: "Therefore, Fares, immediately when you see your target, aim at it well and shoot it. Are you ready?"
Fares: "Ready!"
Ibrahim: "Go ahead, hero."
Official PA TV, Children of the Village Chief, May 11, 2019

In a different episode, a woman wonders how it happened that the Arab forces were defeated by the Jews since "the Jews are cowards." The man replies that "the British are a snake in the grass... they gave [the Jews] everything." Note: This is not historically correct; Britain did not arm the Jewish forces:

Subhiya: "I don't know from where they came to us! We have always said that the Jews are cowards, they would not dare to do anything."
Abd Al-Sattar: "The weapons in their hands are unlimited, and the British are a snake in the grass - before they left they gave [the Jews] everything."
Official PA TV, Children of the Village Chief, May 7, 2019

In a later episode, Jews are portrayed as potential rapists and "impure schemers." Set during the Six-Day-War in 1967, the villagers discuss running away before "the Jews" arrive, because the villagers "have wives and honor is precious" and they fear the Jewish soldiers will rape the village women: 

Abu Fathi: "The Jews have taken over all of the villages around us... We don't want trouble. We are men, we have wives and honor is precious! And the Jews are impure schemers; they cannot be trusted!"
Villager: "What does that mean, Fayez; that we leave the village and go away?"
Official PA TV, Children of the Village Chief, May 18, 2019

Khirbet Al-Loz - an Arab village in the Jerusalem area which Israeli forces took over during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence without any significant resistance from the villagers.

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