Zionist Organization of America Press Release, August 9, 2000
Reviving one of the oldest and most dangerous anti-Jewish canards in history,
Yasir Arafat’s official Palestinian Authority media are charging that the Jews
killed Jesus and are now similarly mistreating the Palestinian Arabs.
The latest information about the PA threats has been released by
Palestinian Media Watch , a non-partisan media monitoring group headed
by Itamar Marcus, one of the Israeli representatives on the trilateral
anti-incitement committee set up after the 1998 Israel-PA Wye Accord.
Morton A. Klein, National President of the Zionist Organization of America:
“Instead of seeking peace, Arafat and his media are inciting the
most vicious hatred against Jews and Israel–reviving the deicide charge,
which was responsible for inciting countless massacres of Jews throughout
the centuries. Why does the Clinton administration, which is supposed to
be interested in fostering peace, continue to send the Palestinian Arabs
$100-million annually?”
According to Palestinian Media Watch:
- PA: “The Jews Killed Jesus” —
The July 23, 2000 edition of the PA Television program “Good Morning
Jerusalem” featured an artist with a painting of Jesus between two Israeli
soldiers. The artist told the viewing audience:“Our struggle today against the Other is an eternal
struggle; one can say that it began 2,000 years ago and it continues
until today. I portray this with the figure of Jesus who came to the
world with the gospel of justice, and the Other Side did what they did to
him, and the Palestinian demands the same justice, and they deal with us
the same way.” - Similarly, the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah published an article
in its July 24, 2000 issue headlined, “Nazareth: The City Where the Jews
Murdered the First Palestinian of Her Sons.”The article declared:
“Nazareth became famous as the place where Jesus grew up…The Jews
tried to attack the city many times in order to disperse the people of Nazareth
and uproot them, just as they obliterated many Arab villages… The forces
of the Zionist occupation did not succeed in altering the face of the
Palestinian Nazareth, and that she did not forget and will not forget her
first son that the Jews betrayed and handed him over to the Roman emperor,
and persisted until he was taken out to be killed.” - PA Television Fosters War Atmosphere:
Last week, the official PA
Television “repeatedly broadcast military parades and video clips of violence
against Israeli soldiers.” The announcer described the Israeli soldiers on screen
as “Satan’s agents” and “enemies of mankind.” (July 21, 2000) - “From the kitchen knife to the Kalatchnikov”:
The PA-appointed governor of Khan Yunis, Sakhr Basiso, declared that the PA
“will use all available means from the kitchen knife to the Kalatchnikov rifle the ultimate purification of the land”. The threat was published
in the official PA daily Al-Hayat al-Jadida on July 20, 2000. -
Teenagers to receive weapons training:
Yasir Arafat’s wing of the PLO, Fatah,
“announced a general call-up in its ranks as a preparation for the next stage.
The movement announced the opening of registration for boys until the age of
16, for weapons training.” (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 20, 2000)
