Imagine if Israeli TV referred to Palestinian Muslims as “evil”, “barbaric” animals

Just for a moment, imagine if the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) aired a show with the following exchange between a young Jewish Israeli girl and a reporter:

Israeli TV reporter: “Let’s meet this girl here in the park who wants to recite a short poem.”
Young Israeli girl: “I do not fear the rifle because Muslim throngs are in delusion and ignorant herds.
Jerusalem is my land, Jerusalem is my honor
Oh, you Muslims who murdered pious Jews
Oh, you Muslims who were brought up on spilling blood
You Muslims have been condemned to humiliation and hardship.
Oh Sons of Allah, oh most evil among creations
Oh barbaric monkeys, wretched pigs
Jerusalem vomits from within it your Muslim impurity
And Jerusalem, you Muslims who are filth, is clean and pure.
I do not fear your barbarity.

Do we really even have to wonder what kind of reaction would ensue if it this fictional account was real? Such an ugly expression of hate towards Muslims would be justly criticized as state sanctioned racism – and an act of incitement against Palestinians – in newspaper editorials in Jerusalem, London and New York. 

Well, here is a real clip from a program on Palestinian Authority TV (mirroring the faux exchange above) which was broadcast on July 3, 2013, and which hasn’t been covered by the Guardian or other liberal broadsheets:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyRLyXCj3Lg&w=560&h=315]

Of course, that highly disturbing exchange represents Just one example of state sanctioned antisemitism out of literally hundreds available at the site of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).

The failure by the Guardian, and others in the ‘mainstream’ media, to cover the continuing drumbeat of antisemitic hate, and the promotion of violence against Israeli civilians, emanating from the Palestinian Authority media represents, at the bare minimum, a profound breach of their responsibilities – especially for those who claim a progressive, anti-racist orientation.  

Despite the wide availability online of well-documented reports which detail the characterization of Jews and Israelis as evil, satanic and animal-like within the Palestinian media, most major news sites ignore the phenomenon, rationalize it, or downplay its significance.

The disparity in moral accountability, in which Muslims in the region are routinely denied moral agency, by journalists covering the Middle East not only suggests a troubling degree of liberal racism, but also serves to egregiously distort the West’s understanding of the conflict.

When most Israelis decry the Palestinian culture of incitement and antisemitic indoctrination, they aren’t engaging in mere talking points but, rather, are expressing their genuine fears regarding a historically familiar abdication in the face antisemitism’s dangerous resurgence.  It is naturally difficult for most Israeli Jews to trust the “peace overtures” of Palestinians when their state institutions and religious leaders promote an ideology which casts Jews and/or Israelis as the embodiment of evil who represent a danger to all humanity.

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It’s difficult to respect the media gatekeepers who continually engage in selective reporting, excluding such inconvenient facts about factors which exacerbate the conflict. As we’ve documented continually, when the choice is between exposing hard, painful truths which will challenge their readers’ preconceived notions about Jews and Arabs vs. advancing the desired narrative, the latter wins out nearly every time. 

Antisemitic incitement, and the disturbing culture of racism and intolerance within Palestinian society, represents one of the ‘root causes’ of the conflict that you won’t read about at the Guardian or ‘Comment is Free‘.

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