Sunday, September 07, 2008

Teaching about a world without Israel

From Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, Sept. 3, 2008:

Palestinian children are taught through formal and informal education to see a world in which the state of "Palestine" exists and replaces all of Israel. A children's quiz broadcast this week on Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority television shows how thoroughly Palestinian children have absorbed this message.

Children on the TV program routinely identified every Israeli city and landmark as part of the State of "Palestine." Haifa, Ashdod and Eilat are described as Palestinian ports, the Sea of Galilee is said to be a Palestinian lake, and the area of the Palestinian state is said to be 27,000 square kilometers. In fact, the total area of Gaza and the West Bank totals 6,200 square kilometers, so the only way to come up with the larger measurement is to include undisputed Israeli territory in the calculation. The "State of Palestine" is said to border Lebanon and the Red Sea; in fact, these are Israel's borders.

In an unsettling reminder of the 2007 Hamas children's TV program that used a Mickey Mouse character to preach hatred and world Islamic domination, the child host of this week's PATV (Fatah) program is sitting in front of a photo of Mickey Mouse.

Following is a link to a clip from the program: