PA TV attacks PMW: “There is no doubt that he [PMW] is watching me now, recording me, and preparing reports.”
PA TV went on a rant attacking PMW once again, the trigger being PMW’s report on the Red Cross facilitating the PA salaries to terrorist prisoners. As usual, the PA tried to delegitimize PMW, this time through its Israeli affairs expert Fayez Abbas:
“An extremist right-wing organization Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) prepared a report saying that the Red Cross fills out forms for the prisoners and they are submitted to the PA in order to pay salaries to the prisoners.”
Of course, the PA cannot deny this as the Red Cross’ role is written into PA law.
The PA is upset that PMW is monitoring it and exposing the PA to the world:
“This guy [PMW director, Itamar Marcus] comes out against me day and night. There is no doubt that he is watching me now, recording me, and preparing reports.”
Because of the damage PMW has caused the PA by exposing factual information, when PA TV attacks PMW, it does not pinpoint anything specific that was wrong in our report, but just broadcasts slurs:
“I heard him [Marcus] with another report, preparing reports that are all exaggeration, lies, and evasion.”
The PA is attacking PMW now because it is concerned about PMW’s recommendation that Red Cross visits to terrorists in prison be conditioned on the Red Cross not acting as a facilitator for the terror salaries:
“The director of this extremist right-wing organization demanded the Red Cross be prevented from visiting the prisoners.”
PMW has been so successful in exposing the PA and damaging the PA’s international image, which has led to a massive drop in PA-donor funding, that the PA imagines PMW to be a very large organization:
“The budget of this institute PMW is $20 million per year.”
In fact, PMW’s budget is around $1 million per year. (Just imagine what we could do for Israel with just $2 million.)
The PA has attacked PMW many times. After PMW succeeded in having PA leader and Chairman of the Palestinian Football Association Jibril Rajoub suspended from FIFA, which prohibited him from attending international soccer games for a year, Rajoub went on TV to attack PMW:
"They [PMW] are waging this war on all fronts. There's Palestinian Media Watch, whose director [Itamar Marcus] is Goebbels - Goebbels, Hitler's ideological theorist... He is the Goebbels of the 21st century. He prepared an indictment against me... I traveled to Latin America, and every place I go, believe me, he spreads these accusations. He submitted a complaint to the Olympic Committee, he submitted a complaint to FIFA, and when I traveled to the US, he also spread [his accusations] in the US. The only thing he does is to deal with me."
[Official PA TV Live, Sept. 3, 2018]
PMW’s impact on the PA is known in the Arab world. Asharq Al-Awsat, a Saudi-owned news outlet that is known for being a leading Arab daily newspaper, published an article describing the work of PMW and our leading initiatives against the PA:
"A number of political right-wing figures in Israel and the US are pressuring both the US administration and the Israeli government to declare the Palestinian Commission of Detainees Affairs a terrorist organization.
The campaign was launched by right-wing Israeli organization ‘Palestinian Media Watch,’ which sent direct messages to US President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
The organization has been working for more than 30 years against the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority (PA), claiming that they are running anti-Jewish policies, approaches, and practices that support terrorism.
It played a central role in the campaign against paying salaries to Palestinian detainees serving sentences in Israeli prisons, as well as to the families of the deceased.
The Israeli government adopted this approach earlier and decided to deduct the salaries from Palestinian tax funds, which led to a crisis between the Israeli government and the PA, after which the Palestinian Finance Ministry refused to receive the remaining amount…”
[Asharq Al-Awsat, Aug. 12, 2020]
The following is a longer segment of PA TV’s attack on PMW:
Official PA TV “Israeli affairs expert” Fayez Abbas: “An extremist right-wing organization Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) prepared a report saying that the Red Cross fills out forms for the prisoners and they are submitted to the PA in order to pay salaries to the prisoners. Of course, the director of this extremist right-wing organization [Itamar Marcus] demanded the Red Cross be prevented from visiting the prisoners because the Red Cross is part of the plot against Israel. UNRWA, and now it’s the Red Cross… This guy [Marcus] comes out against me day and night. There is no doubt that he is watching me now, recording me, and preparing reports. I heard him with another report, preparing reports that are all exaggeration, lies, and evasion… The budget of this institute PMW is $20 million per year (sic., $1 million), and it is funded by people from the American right-wing.”
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, March 6, 2024]