PA to children: Israel's entire coast is really “Palestine,” “under occupation since 1948”
The Palestinian Authority instructs Palestinian children never to acknowledge Israel's right to exist. In a recent TV program, children were taught that Israel's entire coast is part of “Palestine” and its “gateway to the world.” Israeli ports Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, Ashdod, and Ashkelon were listed as part of the “Palestinian coastal plain” that has been “under Israeli occupation since 1948”:
Official PA TV host: “The Palestinian coastal plain (i.e., Israeli coastal plain) is Palestine’s face towards the Mediterranean Sea and the Arab world, and a cultural junction between the East and West. It constitutes Palestine’s gateway to the world. The Palestinian coast stretches from Mount Carmel in the north (i.e., in Israel) to Rafah that is on the border with Egypt in the south. It is between the Palestinian mountain ranges in the east and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. There are many ports on it such as the ports of Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, Ashdod, Ashkelon (i.e., all in Israel), and Gaza… Many nations have arrived there throughout the generations out of a desire to exploit its location. The Palestinian coastal plain has been under Israeli occupation since 1948.”
[Official PA TV, Farhan and Friends, Jan. 10, 2021]
This has always been the PA’s message to its people. Palestinian Media Watch exposed a similar broadcast focusing on Israel's coast, which official PA TV ran numerous times over five years:
Official PA TV narrator: "The West Bank and Gaza have another section in Palestine which is the Palestinian coast that spreads along the [Mediterranean] sea, from ...Ashkelon in the south, until Haifa, in the Carmel Mountains. Haifa is a well-known Palestinian port. [Haifa] enjoyed a high status among Arabs and Palestinians, especially before it fell to the occupation [Israel] in 1948. To its north, we find Acre. East of Acre, we reach a city with history and importance, the city of Tiberias, near a famous lake, the Sea of Galilee. Jaffa, an ancient coastal city, is the bride of the sea, and Palestine's gateway to the world."
[Official PA TV, numerous times between 2007 - 2012]
Another recent children’s broadcast presented the city of Lod in central Israel as occupied “Palestine,” destined to be liberated:
Official PA TV children’s host Walaa Al-Battat:“Lod (i.e., an Israeli city) is one of Palestine’s ancient cities - 38 km northwest of Jerusalem, 16 km southeast of Jaffa… Abd Al-Rahman Baba is a 12-year-old child from Lod. He is living in the Al-Amari refugee camp temporarily, because he is returning to Lod. Lod is inside him, and his yearning is there.”
Abd Al-Rahman Baba: “The Jews stole our land from us, and I have been waiting 12 years already, my father 40 years, and my grandfather has been waiting 70 years… The Jews took our land by force and settled us in the [refugee] camps. I hope to return to Lod, my city…”
Host: “Do you feel that tomorrow we will return?”
Abd Al-Rahman Baba: “Yes. I feel that tomorrow I will return and liberate Palestine… Every day, every minute, and every year I imagine that I’m in Lod... I imagine that I'm playing with my friends, my neighbors, in our backyard. I imagine our home, how it will be... I imagine the Lod Airport that the occupation (i.e., Israel) Judaized and called “Ben Gurion” … Of course we will return and live in those houses.”
Host: “This is the Palestinian child refugee... There is no replacement for the return. Nothing will make them forget the homeland from which they were expelled.”[Official PA TV, Dec. 3. 2020]
Numerous other broadcasts have emphasized – to children as well as adult Palestinians – that all of Israel is “Palestine,” and that it will “return to us.”