PA TV attacks PMW for using word “terrorists” for PA “heroes"
for three planners of suicide bombings
who are serving 166 life sentences for murder
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
The official Palestinian Authority media continues its condemnation of Palestinian Media Watch for exposing that the PA promotes hatred and terror.
The latest PA TV attack comes in response to PMW's recent bulletin exposing that PA TV glorified three Palestinian terrorists who are serving a total of 166 life sentences for planning suicide bombings and preparing the bombs that were used in numerous terror attacks.
PA TV host Manal Seif responded as follows:
Click to view
According to PA leaders and official PA TV, killing Israelis is a positive achievement and therefore Palestinians who murder Israeli men, women and children are "heroes."
Responding to PMW's bulletin, which exposed PA TV's glorification of the three terrorists, the PA TV host defended her program. She referred by name to the three prisoners who are serving 166 life terms for suicide bombings that targeted civilians at Hebrew University, cafes, restaurants, pedestrian malls, and hotels, among others, and emphasized that they are “heroes.”
The following is the full text of PA TV's rejection of PMW's use of the word "terrorists":
PA TV host: "I want to tell the Israelis that our prisoners are heroes and not terrorists. What I saw reminded me of an Israeli website called 'PMW', or 'Palestinian Media Watch,' a site that monitors the Palestinian media. Of course every visit that we film for a prisoner gets them angry. I was surprised a week ago that [regarding] brother Ibrahim Hamed, brother Abbas Al-Sayid, and brother Abdallah Barghouti, they [PMW] objected, they were upset, they slandered these heroes and claimed that they are terrorists. If they see Abdallah Barghouti (67 life sentences) as a terrorist, Abbas Al-Sayid (35 life sentences)as a terrorist, Ibrahim Hamed (54 life sentences) and Nasser Awais (14 life sentences), if they see all these prisoners as terrorists - we see them as heroes... I salute you, all you heroic fighter prisoners, and of course, I always wish you freedom."
This verbal attack on PMW is the latest of several attacks on PMW by the official PA media. In an attack on PMW last year, the official PA daily protested the impact that PMW is having in European Parliaments and US Congress. PMW's reports have led parliamentarians and governments to reconsider their funding of the PA or to restrict the PA's use of their money.
The new [PMW] report stated: The Palestinian Authority has named streets, public squares, and schools after Palestinian leaders and fighters, such as, for example, the Abu Jihad School in Araba, in the Jenin region, and some schools are even named after Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad)...
The report included some brief background on these leaders, and what it described as the crimes, which they had carried out against Israelis."
A few months ago following NRK Norwegian TV's story on PMW which showed the PA's hate messages against Jews and Israel, which NRK TV noted was being funded by Norway, the PA Ambassador to Norway attacked PMW. [PA TV (Fatah), Feb. 17, 2013]
These and other Palestinian Authority attacks on PMW are an indicator of PMW’s success in creating international awareness of the actual activities, the hate content and the glorification of terror in the official PA world.