PA: All of Israel is “Palestine” and “ours” – in song on official PA TV LIVE
Hardly a day goes by without PA leaders emphasizing to the Palestinian people that Israel has no right to exist, and that all of Israel is “Palestine.”
This song, recently broadcast to Palestinians on one of the PA’s official TV channels, presents a world without Israel in which the cities and places in Israel are said to be in “Palestine.” For emphasis, the words “they are ours,” are applied to the Israeli cities Tel Aviv, Be’er Sheva, Beit Shean, Tiberias, and Ramle, to guarantee no one misses the point that “Palestine” encompasses the entire State of Israel.
Lyrics: “O Paradise of Allah on His land
We love you Palestine...
We love Jerusalem and Ramallah,
We have not forgotten Hebron’s vineyards
Onward to Lod and Safed (i.e., Israeli cities),
We will reach Nablus and the Galilee (i.e., in northern Israel)
We won’t relinquish Tulkarem
We won’t agree to a replacement for Jaffa (i.e., an Israeli city)
We desire Tel Aviv and Be’er Sheva (i.e., Israeli cities) and Jenin
They are ours – Beit Shean and Tiberias, Ramle and the Jezreel Valley (i.e., all in Israel)
It is ours – historical Jericho, we have longed for the Negev (i.e., southern Israel) and Samaria...
Onward ship, bring us to Haifa and Acre (i.e., Israeli cities)”[Official PA TV LIVE, April 27, May 3, 2020]
All of the following places in Israel were presented as "Palestinian": Jerusalem, Lod, Safed, the Galilee, Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Be’er Sheva, Beit Shean, Tiberias, Ramle, the Jezreel Valley, the Negev, Haifa, and Acre.
Palestinian Media Watch has documented that portraying all of Israel as “Palestine” has always been a common theme in songs on PA TV. One very popular song has been broadcast for almost a decade, on all official PA media and on the Fatah-run TV channel Awdah. It was broadcast on official PA TV numerous times from 2011-2017, and now, in 2020, on official PA radio, telling Palestinians that Israel is “Palestine” and that the Israeli cities “Jaffa, Acre, Haifa, and Nazareth are ours”:
On the way to Jerusalem by singer Muhammad Kabha:
“Jaffa, Acre, Haifa, and Nazareth are ours
[ I ], Muhammad, sing about the Galilee
and the Golan [Heights]
From Bethlehem to Jenin is Palestinian, Ramle, Lod and Sakhnin are Palestinian
Nowhere is more beautiful than Jerusalem; no matter how much we travel...
From Safed to Al-Badhan is Palestinian
Tiberias and Ashkelon are Palestinian”[Official PA TV, numerous times 2011-2016;
Official PA TV Live, 2013, 2014; Fatah-run Awdah TV 2016, 2017]
All of the following places in Israel are presented as "Palestinian": Jaffa, Acre, Haifa, Nazareth, the Galilee, the Golan Heights, Ramle, Lod, Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias and Ashkelon.
Another song that became a veritable hit in the PA was the song Oh Flying Bird, in which a bird is asked to deliver greetings to places all over “Palestine” – including Israeli cities. PMW has exposed that official PA TV has broadcast at least eight different versions and performances of this song since 2011:
"Oh flying bird, circling around,
by Allah, oh traveling [bird], I burn with envy.
My country Palestine is beautiful.
Turn to Safed, and then to Tiberias,
and send regards to the sea of Acre and Haifa.
Don't forget Nazareth - the Arab fortress,
and tell Beit Shean about its people's return.
Oh flying bird, circling around...
by Allah, oh traveling [brid], I burn with envy.
My country Palestine is beautiful...
Go to Jenin and bring me from its valley
greeting to Nablus, Tulkarem and their soil.
Drink the water of Jaffa's port,
don't forget Ramle and Ramallah.
Oh flying bird, circling around...
by Allah, oh traveling [bird], I burn with envy.
My country Palestine is beautiful."[Official PA TV, numerous times, 2011-2017,
most recently on official PA TV on April 4, 2017]
An op-ed in the official PA daily recently summed up the PA’s view that is also expressed in the songs above:
“Palestine is from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea. It is the Palestinian people’s historical homeland, and the status of Acre (i.e., an Israeli city) is the status of Nablus, and the status of Jaffa (i.e., an Israeli city) is the status of Hebron.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 7, 2020]
Last Friday, May 15, Palestinians commemorated what they refer to as Nakba Day – “the day of the catastrophe” – marking the establishment of Israel.
On May 15, 1948, combined forces from Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq joined local Arab forces in an attempt to eradicate the newly established State of Israel. The Nakba (Arabic = catastrophe) refers to the establishment of Israel, and the subsequent defeat in the war, including the killing and displacement of Arab civilians that occurred during the war. The two fundamental messages of the term “Nakba” are to transfer Arab responsibility for the tragedies they themselves caused by placing the blame on Israel and to deny Israel’s legitimacy as a state.
Significantly, the PA doesn’t just mark the “catastrophe” and deny the legitimacy of the existence of Israel one day a year. Songs like these that are broadcast regularly, and presentation of the PA map that turns all of Israel into “Palestine” are messages that are promoted regularly to the Palestinian people. The PA uses all of the means of communication and education it controls – official TV and radio, social media, schoolbooks, official events and more, to indoctrinate Palestinians that Israel has no right to exist and that all of Israel will eventually be "Palestine".