Printer friendly version of this articlePosted on 03/11/2003 11:54:14 AM PST by SJackson
PA Inciting Palestinians Against America, Critic Says
A Review of "Doodling for Saddam: The Use of Cartoons in Palestinian Newspaper to Recruit for the Iraqi Regime
Julie Stahl
Bureau Chief, CNSNEWS.COM
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Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - The Palestinian Authority is inciting its citizens against America, and the publication of anti-American sentiments in the government-controlled press proves it, an informed critic said here.
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David Bedein, bureau chief of the Israel Resource News Agency in Jerusalem, charged that the Palestinians are using their media to stir up the public against the U.S., even to the point of going to war.
Bedein has put together a collection of anti-American cartoons focusing on Iraq ("Doodling for Saddam: The Use of Cartoons in Palestinian Newspaper to Recruit for the Iraqi Regime) that have appeared in Palestinian dailies during the last three months. He intends to distribute it next week to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security committee and the U.S. Middle East subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee.
"The cartoons are meant to hit you viscerally. [The PA is trying] to whip up the Palestinian people into a war against the U.S.," Bedein told CNSNews.com. "The Palestinian media [is being] whipped up for war against America."
He also pointed to various pro-Saddam Hussein demonstrations held throughout PA areas as further proof that the PA is hostile toward America.
During those demonstrations, which can happen only with prior approval of the regime, American flags have been burned and anti-American slogans - such as "Death to America" - have been expressed.
He noted that while in the free Western press, political cartoons represent the opinions of individuals, editors or interest groups, in a totalitarian regime they represent the opinions of the government.
The cartoons in the report were taken from Al Quds, Al Ayyam and Al Hayat Al Jedida during the last three months. All three Arabic dailies are connected with the PA and its Chairman Yasser Arafat.
The cartoons include one that appeared in Al Hayat Al Jedida on December 14, 2002, showing the skeleton of a fish with a woeful Saddam Hussein standing nearby, indicating that Iraq has nothing left of its missile arsenal to stop the U.S. from invading.
On December 10, 2002 the same paper showed Iraq (pictured as a man) offering the U.S. an olive branch of peace in the first frame; in the second frame, the USA is shown stabbing a fallen Iraq with the same olive branch.
Another cartoon in the same newspaper on December 22, shows Bush as a long-nosed Pinocchio saying, "Saddam lies."
On January 12, 2003, Al Quds featured a caricatured President Bush, wearing giant earplugs,with the West on one side and the Arab nations on the other urging him not to attack Iraq.
And on February 18, the same paper pictured the globe half encircled by a barbed wire fence put up by a U.S. ship circling the world, imprisoning it in the war against terrorism.
"At a time of rising anti-Americanism in the Middle East and the prospect of violence against U.S. nationals, cartoons in the PA-controlled media constitute a barometer of the policy of the Arafat regime," Bedein wrote in the report
"The cartoons help set the tone for the increasing anti-U.S. demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was well as threats by Palestinian terrorist groups against Americans . . .
"In the totalitarian order imposed on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, cartoons in Palestinian newspapers reflect the will of the regime and symbolizes a weather vane of political currents," he concluded.
But PA Transport Minister Ghassan Khatib argued that while the cartoons may represent the sentiments of the Palestinian people, they don't represent the opinion of the PA itself.
"I think the PA is very much pro-U.S. This is one of the problems," Khatib said in a telephone interview. "The Palestinian public is largely hostile to the U.S."
Khatib, the former director of the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, said that public opinion polls, which the JMCC conducted, indicate that "there is a great deal of hostility to the American government and its Middle East policies" among Palestinians, but towards the American people they are neutral.
Khatib said the Palestinians are against American because of its perceived support for Israel, which he called the enemy of the Palestinians.
On the other hand, he said, the Palestinians are very sympathetic toward the Iraqi people although not necessarily Saddam.
He pointed to the Arab nationality, Muslim religion, culture and the region as factors that unite Palestinians and Iraqis. He also pointed out that Iraq sent troops to the area during several wars to fight on behalf of the Palestinians and is currently involved in helping the Palestinian people.
Saddam has sent payments of up to $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers and terrorists. It has been distributed through ceremonies sponsored by the PA.
"I don't think the Palestinian people need anyone to inflame them in this regard. They have enough reasons," he said.
Independent Palestinian analyst George Khleifi, deputy director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al-Quds University, said it was not clear that the Palestinian press represented the views of the political leadership but it did represent the feelings of the Palestinian people.
The Palestinians are not convinced that the U.S. motives are purely to get rid of a dictator.
"They know that it is all about oil and domination. I wouldn't define it as anti-U.S., [more like] anti-US policy, anti this establishment, [anti] domination of the U.S. of the whole world," Khleifi said.
According to Khleifi, the papers are not exactly run by the PA but "if the leadership doesn't really want them to say something they don't say it."
But Israeli expert Yigal Carmon, director of the Middle East Media Research Institute which monitors and translates the Arab media and press throughout the region, strongly disagreed.
"It's their organ. It's them," Carmon said of the state run press and media. "They should not be freed from it because they control it."
The cartoons definitely send a message and give the "basic position" of the regime, he said.
Although Carmon said he was not convinced that cartoons could convince Palestinians to go to war, still he said, "The images sink into the psyche of people."
This piece ran on the CNS wire on March 7, 2003
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Doodling for Saddam
The Use of Cartoons in Palestinian Newspapers
to Recruit for the Iraqi Regime
Section I: Introduction
The Palestinian Authority, taking a lesson from authoritarian regimes, uses its media to mobilize support for the ruling class and its war against Israel. Since 1994, PA Chairman Yasser Arafat has increasingly controlled the media by establishing newspapers directly owned by the authority, while banning of independent news organizations. [1]
The PA control of the media has become absolute, especially since the escalation of the war with Israel in September 2000. PA security officers control the Arab Journalists Association and the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. The security agencies approve the appointment of editors for all newspapers. Independent-minded journalists have either been jailed or dismissed from their posts. [2]
The regime has imposed conformity in all licensed media that resembles the practice in such countries as Egypt and Syria. [3]
The result is that the PA uses its official newspapers, radio and television to mobilize support for the war against Israel. And over the last few months, the Arafat regime has also used the official PA media to become advocates of Iraq. Newspapers have replaced front-page headlines that focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with reports on the U.S. military buildup against Iraq. Iraqi soldiers killed in engagements during U.S. and British patrols of the no-fly zones are now described as "martyrs." PA television broadcasts sermons by PA-employed clerics that proclaim prayers for the destruction of the United States. [4]
The shift is even more pronounced on the editorial pages of the Palestinian dailies. Columnists and editorial writers have focused increasingly on Iraq and what they term the U.S. strategy to dominate the Arab world. Cartoons are published that portray the United States as a world bully whose latest victim is Iraq.
Many newspapers in the Arab world supported Iraq during its confrontation with the international community over Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction. But nowhere in the Arab world has that support been more pronounced than in the official PA media. While other Arab regimes reluctantly supported Iraq as a sop to their opposition, the Arafat regime mobilized for Baghdad because of Arafat's personal relations with Saddam Hussein. The genesis of that relationship was spawn in the 1970s and have continued since as Saddam has poured in tens of millions of dollars to help sustain the PA war against Israel. [5]
The result has been massive demonstrations in support of Saddam, engineered both by the dominant Fatah movement and the opposition Hamas. At these demonstrations, organizers lead chants for Saddam to destroy Tel Aviv with missiles and to fire weapons of mass destruction at U.S. troops. As a matter of ritual, the British, Israeli and U.S. flags are burned. The Palestinian Authority has allowed these demonstrations to occur.
The PA Dailies
There are three Arabic-language dailies operating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Two of them are directly owned by the Palestinian Authority. The third is partly owned by Arafat and controlled by his regime.
Al Quds:
Based in Jerusalem and the largest daily in the Palestinian areas with a circulation of 25,000. The newspaper was established by pro-Jordanian Palestinians in 1951. It is published by Mahmoud Abu Zuluf. It underwent a period of official domination in the early days of the PA and has now conformed completely to the regime's line.
Al Ayyam:
Based in the West Bank city of Ramallah and published by Akram Haniyeh, a longtime aide of Arafat. The newspaper, founded after the PA was established in 1994, is regarded as the official daily of the regime and in the 1990s was used to float trial balloons regarding new policies and appointments.
Al Hayat Al Jedida:
Based in Ramallah and the smallest of the three dailies. The newspaper reflects the revolutionary principles of the Fatah movement and is by far the most strident of the dailies. The newspaper, established in 1995, is directly financed by Arafat. The names of the editors and founders, Hafez Barghouti and Nabil Amr, no longer appear in the newspaper in a demonstration of dissatisfaction by Arafat.
These newspapers have been used to villify the United States and its allies. The PA has encouraged Palestinian journalists to write stories that threaten Israeli journalists, who have sought protection from potential attacks. In December 2002, the Arafat-controlled Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade began to intercept phone conversations of at least one Israeli journalist and to send transcripts to an unspecified location abroad. [6]
The PA support for Saddam can be most graphically illustrated in the daily cartoons in Palestinian dailies. Most of the cartoons are taken from newspapers in surrounding Arab states
The cartoons portray the United States, and particularly President George Bush, as the bully of the world. The U.S. target, the cartoons assert, is the Arab world, which is helpless to defend against itself.
We have divided the cartoons into the following categories:
The cartoons were taken from PA dailies in December 2002, and January/February 2003.
Notes:
- In November 2001, the Paris-based Reporters sans Frontiers listed PA security forces as "predators of press freedom," charging them with arbitrarily detaining foreign journalists critical of the Arafat regime.
- Khalid Abu Aker, "Palestinian Media: Realities, Challenges, and Development Prospects," April 2001. "The privately-owned media is either run by people who also hold posts in the PA as advisors or staff, or people who do not seek to get into trouble with the PA and risk their interest. Therefore they avoid any criticism that would put them in confrontation with the Authority."
Section II: The Cartoons
A. Iraq as a Paper Tiger
PA newspaper cartoons rarely show Palestinian Saddam Hussein. Instead, the PA newspapers portray Iraq as a frail man or woman, helpless in the face of U.S. brutality. Iraq is often seen as the last bastion of Arab independence or a power completely stripped of military might. The cartoons show Iraq as honoring the international community's will regarding inspections and sanctions. Indeed, Iraq is usually seen holding a dove of peace and an olive branch of reconciliation. But Iraq is always a victim, never able to satisfy U.S. demands.
Al Hayat Al Jedida, Dec. 14, 2002
Iraq has nothing left of its missile arsenal to stop invading U.S. aircraft.
Al Quds, Dec. 22, 2002
Iraq, surrounded by sharks, is portrayed as last bastion of Arabism.
Al Hayat Al Jedida, Dec. 22, 2002
Iraq is pulled apart by two factions in the United Nations.
Al Hayat Al Jedida, Jan. 5, 2003
U.S. uses Islamic world to slaughter Iraq as it is being held by UN inspectors.
Al Hayat Al Jedida, Dec. 19, 2002
Everybody wants a piece of Iraq.
Al Hayat Al Jedida, Dec. 10, 2002
Iraq offers an olive branch to the U.S.
Al Hayat Al Jedida, Feb. 8, 2003
The Arab world prays for Iraq and Palestine, America's two victims.
Al Hayat Al Jedida, Dec. 14, 2002
The U.S. strangles the Iraqi peace dove.
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The Israel Resource Review is brought to you by the Israel Resource News Agency, a media firm based at the Bet Agron Press Center in Jerusalem, and the Gaza Media Center under the jurisdiction of the Palestine Authority.
You can contact us on media@actcom.co.il.
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Doodling for Saddam
B. Arabs as helpless in the face of the United States
The Arab states are usually represented by a globe with a mustache. This community is small, demure and constantly suffering insults from the United States. These Arabs are often shown as sleeping through the crisis as the United States arms for war. In the view of the Palestinian cartoons, Arab solidarity is an illusion, Arab decisions a sham and Arab determination a fiction. Indeed, the cartoons often show the Arabs as puppets of the United States, talking tough, doing little.
Al Hayat Al Jedida, Dec. 10, 2002
Arab bends over as he says "I came to show solidarity."
Al Hayat Al Jedida, Dec. 19, 2002
Arabs try to keep warm in torn cloak of "Arab solidarity."
Al Quds, Dec. 19, 2002
The fickleness of UN decisions on Iraq: "Decisions are subject to change."
Al Ayyam, Feb. 18, 2003
Arab leaders play "broken telephone" at summit to discuss Iraq.
Al Hayat Al Jedida, Feb. 9, 2003
The Arab world can't find its muscle.
Al Hayat Al Jedida, Feb. 9, 2003
The Arab world can't catch the mosquito that will start the war.
Al Hayat Al Jedida, Jan. 9, 2003
Arab diplomats calmly read their reams of protocol as the bomb drops.
Al Quds, Feb. 7, 2003
Gulf Arab holds sign reading:
Al Quds, Feb. 17, 2003
Europeans protest as Arabs are silenced from supporting Iraq.
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Conclusion:
At a time of rising anti-Americanism in the Middle East and the prospect of violence against U.S. nationals, cartoons in the PA-controlled media constitute a barometer of the Arafat regime's policies. The cartoons set the tone for the increasing anti-U.S. atmosphere and for the active demonstrations throughout the area under control of the Palestinian Authority, which are accompanied by Palestinian terrorist threats against Americans.
In a democratic society, cartoons often represent the political inclinations of individuals, and sometimes reflect grass-roots ideology. However, in a totalitarian society, such as the one that exists today under the rule of the Palestinian Authority, cartoons in PA newspapers reflect the will of their regime and provide a compass for political currents.
President Bush is deaf to pleas from communists, partisan democrat obstructionists, antiAmerican forces around the globe, socialists, marxists, anarchist-socialists, antisemites, and muslims who are forbidden by their Imam from criticizing any other muslim. They oppose war for a variety of reasons but "peace" is not it.
Even Bill Clinton has admitted that his bombing campaigns on Iraq (which went unprotested) were not to eliminate Saddam's illegal weapons programs, just to delay it. Bubba admits in the same article that he knew the next administration would have to deal with this issue again.
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