PMWATCH - May 27, 2002 -- One of the most favorite tropes of the pro-Zionist propaganda machine is the proposition that Palestinian children are inculcated, from the craddle to the grave, with unbridled, raw hatred for Israel and Jews. Indeed, how many times have you heard from Israel's spokesmen, official and otherwise -- from Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Ra'naan Ghissin, Dore Gold, Alon Pinkus, etc.-- and from their echo lackeys in the media -- Rush Limbaugh, Alan Keyes, George Will, Charles Krauthammer, William Safire, Daniel Pipes, etc. -- that Palestinian textbooks teach children to hate and despise, and to regard the killing of Jews as their duty? How many times have we heard the complaint that Israelis can't make peace with "people who hate them", and how many times have we heard them demand an end to "the incitement"?

The short answer is: they are always talking about it -- about alleged "Palestinian incitement" and about "a culture of hatred".

What we never hear, however -- not only from the pro-Israeli propaganda machine, but more importantly, from the US media -- are two things. (1) That a scholarly study has been carried out by George Washington Professor Nathan Brown, in which he concluded that "the Palestinian curriculum is not a war curriculum; while highly nationalistic, it does not incite hatred, violence, and anti-Semitism. It cannot be described as a "peace curriculum" either, but the charges against it are often wildly exaggerated or inaccurate"; and (2) That hatred of the rawest kind from Israeli children for Palestinians is rampant. The piece below from the mainstream paper Yedioth Ahronoth tells is it all: Israeli children writing passionately to their soldiers to "please kill a lot of Arabs".

Of course, the story has received NO PLAY in the US media. How widespread is this feeling, where did the hatred come from, and why are we not hearing anything about it in the US media? This is an important story, especially given that many of those who wrote, as the piece points out, will be soldiers in a few years. Could this perhaps explain why Israeli soldiers kill Palestinians "for sport", as NYTimes reporter Chris Hedges put it in his interview with NPR's Fresh Air, and in his "Gaza Diary" piece in Harper's Magazine?

Most probably, the reason why this story has received no play (just as Chris Hedges' story has also received minimal follow up investigations) is that not many of the intrepid American reporters sent out to cover one of the most important international stories, can actually read Hebrew or Arabic. The most salient point in Hedges' story, for instance, hinges on what he heard with his own ears: Israeli soldiers inciting Palestinian children and shouting in Arabic, "the Palestinians who live in Khan Yunis are dogs". A reporter who did not speak the language would have thought that the Israelis were merely asking the children to disperse, or something benign along those lines. Indeed, a measure of the extent of the linguistic deficiency of American reporters covering the conflict is the Hebrew of two-decade veteran of the region, and three time Pulitzer prize winner, Thomas Friedman. By his own admission, his Hebrew is so "rusty" (his own words) that he once had to rely on Marwan Barghouti to translate a small headline for him!

But also, the reason why the story has not been picked up is because it just doesn't fit the status-quo narrative: Israel is an enlightened democracy, it is peace-loving, and is only trying to defend itself against the Arab hordes who keep threatening its existence. Hence, the revelation that young Israelis would send hateful, warmongering letters, is treated as an oddity, a curiosity, an exception, rather than what it probably is: an important symptom of something deeper, and perhaps something to dig into to better understand the real complex dynamic of the conflict.

Please impress upon the media the need to strive for excellence: (1) The need to ensure that journalists sent to the region should be linguistically qualified (would the NYTimes send someone to Russia who did not speak Russian, or someone to France who did not speak French?), and (2) The need to ensure that ALL aspects of the conflict are covered, and not only those that neatly fit the usual narrative.

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Palestine Media Watch
http://www.pmwatch.org

"DEAR SOLDIER, PLEASE KILL A LOT OF ARABS"

Yedioth Ahronoth, May 7, 2002

[ Original Hebrew: http://www.ynet.co.il/NonReg/Ext/App/Billing/Registration/CdaBillReg_LoginScreen/1,10075,,00.html

[For a commentary on article ] http://www.ynet.co.il/home/0,7340,L-1049-1879848,00.html

Israeli reservists serving in the Tulkarm area during Operation Defensive Shield were stunned when they opened gifts sent by school Children from central Israel. Many of the students wrote them letters in which they encouraged them to disregard the rules and regulations and to kill as many Arabs as possible. Dozens of the letters were sent, mostly from children in the 7th through 10th grades who attend national religious schools.

One reservist said he was eager to open the letter, but he was stunned when he started to read it. "I pray for you that you return home safely, and kill at least ten for me," wrote the pupil. "Screw the rules and spray them. By the way-a good Arab is a dead Arab." Other letters were even more heated. "Let the Palestinians, may God blacken their name, burn in Hell. Punch holes in them with your M-16 and bomb them," wrote one of the teens. Another wrote, "I have a special request for you-kill as many Arabs as you can." In another letter, a pupil wished the soldier success in his mission and added, "Say, isn't it fun to shoot an Arab? Here's a slogan: a good Arab is a dead Arab. A top notch Arab is a buried Arab."

Most of the letters contained similar statements. Some of the teenagers, who are supposed to be drafted in another two years, said they regretted not being able to take part in the "action" now. The reservist who opened the first letter mentioned above gathered all the letters and sent them to the Jewish Action Center. "I read the letters and couldn't believe my eyes," he said. "We keep talking about the hateful incitement of the Palestinian educational system towards Israel and suddenly it happens here with us, beneath everyone's nose. This issue simply frightens me and has to set off alarms in our educational system."

The director of the public department at the Jewish Action Center sent a letter to the Education Minister demanding she investigate the situation and curb "trends towards radicalization." The ministry said it will investigate.