Israeli reporting on PA salaries to terrorists is "incitement," says PA daily
Official PA daily:
Israeli media coverage of PMW report
on PA salaries to terrorists
is "incitement against the Palestinian prisoners"
Israeli media coverage of PMW report
on PA salaries to terrorists
is "incitement against the Palestinian prisoners"
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
The official Palestinian Authority daily has accused an Israeli newspaper of participating in a "systematic campaign of incitement against the Palestinian prisoners." This accusation was generated by the paper Yisrael Hayom's front page story about Palestinian Media Watch's report on the PA's recently ratified law determining the payment of salaries to terrorists in Israeli prisons.
Reporting on PMW's documentation of this practice by the PA, the Israeli paper quoted Israeli ministers' responses, including the demand by Minister of Interior, Eli Yishai, that "transfer of funds to the PA must be frozen, the Palestinians do not want peace."
Members of US Congress and British parliament have responded to the PMW report and condemned this PA funding of terrorists.
The following is the article accusing Israeli media of incitement in the PA daily:
"As part of the systematic campaign of incitement against the Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli media, on Aug. 15, 2011 the newspaper Yisrael Hayom published a report in which it criticized the fact that the Palestinian Authority pays monthly allowances to Palestinian prisoners and their families. The report said: 'A major part of the PA budget is used for salaries to Palestinian terrorists. According to a report [by Palestinian Media Watch] which reached a senior government member in Jerusalem, every Palestinian terrorist imprisoned in Israel receives a salary from the PA.' It also said, 'The PA receives funds from two sources: half from the American administration and the rest from donor countries.' In response to this [PMW] report, the newspaper [Yisrael Hayom] published inciting statements by political figures. Minister Eli Yishai said that 'transfer of funds to the PA must be frozen, the Palestinians do not want peace.' Minister of Tourism, Stas Misezhnikov, added, 'We must plan for the worst possible scenario in September; there may be strong - perhaps also armed - protest activities.'"
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 23, 2011]
View the article in Yisrael Hayom in Hebrew.