The Arabist

The Arabist

By Issandr El Amrani and friends.

Finally, PA kicks back against Israel's Hasbara

A Jerusalem-based correspondent forwarded me the email below — it's a new initiative by the PLO Delegation to the United States to track anti-Palestinian incitement in Israeli media and society and publicize it to American journalists, officials and politicians. Let's hope this works and gets some attention on the issue — or will the politicians decide to ignore this?

From: General Delegation of the PLO
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2012 07:42 PM
To: [various] 
Subject: Monthly Report on Israeli Incitement
  

Monthly Report on Israeli Incitement

January 2012 Issue                                                                                                                      

In order to facilitate an environment that is conducive for peace and security, it is important to mitigate factors that contribute to keeping both Palestinians and Israelis from achieving progress. Incitement has been one of those factors.

In this respect, the Palestinian Authority has undertaken initiatives that curb and diminish incitement against Israel; by 2006, the Palestinian Ministry of Education revised textbooks to ensure the removal of incitement. Additionally, President Abbas has repeatedly called for the activation of the trilateral incitement monitoring committee that was stipulated in the Wye River Memorandum of 1998.

This report seeks to highlight major incidents of Israeli incitement in public, media, and governmental spheres that occurred in January, in an effort to urge the Israeli government to condemn and redress incitement against Palestinians.[i]

January 4, 2012

Palestinian cars torched in Jerusalem 'price tag' attack

“Jewish extremists torched a mosque prayed the Star of David, "price tag," "Muhammad is a pig" and "A good Arab is a dead Arab" in Hebrew on the ancient building's walls.”

Read Article , Maan News Agency.

January 5, 2012

IDF rabbinate edits out Dome of the Rock from picture of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount

“Israel’s military rabbinate released an educational document ahead of the holiday of Hanukkah last month, featuring a photo of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount without the Dome of the Rock”

 Read Article, Haaretz.

January 9, 2012

Israeli foreign minister: Redraw map to oust Arabs

“Any future agreement with the Palestinians must address the matter of Israeli Arabs in the formula of territory and population exchanges,’’ Lieberman said. “Any other arrangement is simply collective suicide. This has to be clear and I think it is time to say these things out loud.”

Read Article, Boston Globe.

Lieberman tells Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee: "The only way forward is to manage the conflict, and not to end the conflict."

“The key, Lieberman explained, is to “manage” the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, implying that it cannot be solved in the near future.”

Read Article, Jerusalem Post.

January 11, 2012

3 cars torched, mosque defaced in West Bank

“Three cars were set ablaze and a mosque was defaced in a Palestinian village in the West Bank. The words "price tag Gal Arya Yosef" was spray-painted across the Islamic house of worship.”

Read Article, CNN.

January 13, 2012

Israeli high court upholds controversial citizenship law

“Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that Palestinians will not be able to acquire Israeli citizenship through marriage. On Wednesday night, an expanded panel of 11 high-court jurists rejected a series of petitions against a provision in Israel's decades-old citizenship law that has been decried by many as a violation of the rights of the nation's Arab minority, many of whom are married to Palestinians. Rights organizations condemn the amendment as racist and a collective violation of the rights of the Arab minority, which makes up 20% of Israel's citizens.”

Read Article, Los Angeles Times.

January 22, 2012

Rivlin calling for Jerusalem capital of Israel

“Jordanian Parliament speaker takes offense at Rivlin's New Year's greeting letter.The Knesset speaker’s letter began with him explaining that he is writing from “the Holy City of Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. Massri called the letter racist, biased and political, and returned it to Israel’s ambassador to Jordan, Daniel Nevo. The Jordanian speaker specifically took issue with Rivlin calling Jerusalem the capital of Israel.”

Read Article, Jerusalem Post.

January 31, 2012

Israel Government to destroy Muslim cemetery to expand Jewish cemetery and build road in Norther Israel 

Read Article in Arabic, Al Jazeera.

 [i] Note: This report relies on Western, Israeli, and Arabic news sources reporting directly from Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Preference is given to news stories in English, but in the event that a story is only available in Arabic, the headline of the original story is translated and posted in this report. In the event that a link becomes inactive or dysfunctional, please contact the PLO Delegation in Washington, DC, and an alternative link will be provided.