Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Important Websites
Two important websites to follow: http://www.jihadwatch.org/ and http://www.actforamerica.org/. We must be ever vigilant.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Indoctrination to Hate - Worse than Incitement
Photo by: Palestinian Media Watch
Monitoring Palestinian incitement is not enough
By FERN OPPENHEIM11/04/2010
We need to address the issue of the indoctrination of children
Who are taught to hate from a very young age.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently announced that Israel will begin to monitor incitement in the Palestinian Authority, and appointed Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser as government coordinator of this program. According to a recent Haaretz article, reports on incitement will be issued periodically and an “incitement index” will be produced by monitoring broadcasts in the official PA media, statements and actions by senior PA officials, and textbooks. While this is welcome news, and a crucial step forward in creating a more conducive climate for peace, it falls short in terms of adequately communicating the full scope and severity of the problem.
Israeli government officials historically have spoken about the culture of hatred in the PA solely in terms of incitement. In addition to incitement, there is a related and arguably even more egregious phenomenon – indoctrination – which should be monitored, reported on and publicized in its own right. To conflate the two and report only on “incitement” is to unnecessarily blur the true nature of what has been taking place in Palestinian society.
Incitement is defined as “stirring to action, attempting to persuade.” A good example of incitement in the PA would be a fiery speech against Israel by a politician or an imam. Indoctrination, on the other hand, is defined as “instruction in the rudiments of a belief system” or, more simply put, brainwashing.
An example of indoctrination would be a Palestinian TV program that teaches young children that all of Israel is Palestinian territory, and that suicide missions are the highest form of martyrdom.There are critical distinctions between the two which highlight the need to address them separately:
1. Who they target – adults vs. children
When an Imam or politician preaches hate to an adult audience, those assembled generally have the ability to assess the speech and make their own judgments regarding its veracity. Conversely, when children’s TV shows, textbooks, etc. teach young Palestinians that Israelis have no historical ties to the land, that Jews are evil, that terrorism is justified, etc., the children targeted are being brainwashed to believe what they are being taught. Unlike adults, they are not yet able to assess the quality of information being fed to them. They become the unwitting vessels of the poison being served. In this regard, indoctrination is an educational form of child abuse that is like statutory rape of the mind. It is a human-rights violation against which children’s rights activists should be up in arms.
2. The shelf life of the message – temporary vs. forever.
Messages of incitement to adults can be turned on and off like a spigot, depending on the needs of the Palestinian governing body. Once youngsters are indoctrinated, however, they will likely believe the vile things they were taught for the rest of their lives, and act on them. Israel can make all the concessions requested of her tomorrow, yet an entire generation of Palestinians will still harbor the hatred they were spoon-fed to their dying days. Indoctrination is therefore a much greater threat than incitement to the long-term prospects for peace.
As a child of a Holocaust survivor, I have often questioned how so many people could be complicit in the murder of the six million. While there are no simple answers, it is clear that the groundwork for turning a normal society into murderers has to be carefully laid. All forms of propaganda have to be employed to dehumanize the victims and position them as threats to the society.
It is alarming to witness this type of groundwork being laid in the Palestinian territories over the past several years by official bodies and media outlets. When innocent Palestinian children watch their beloved Sesame Street-like TV characters brutally murdered by IDF soldiers, or spend time in summer camps and public squares named after suicide bombers, they are being carefully prepared to harbor lasting enmity and emulate perpetrators of terror.
This indoctrination is the start of a process that results in a culture of blind hatred. It has been allowed to flourish for far too long. Israeli government officials, including those involved in Netanyahu’s new program, must address the brainwashing of Palestinian children as a discrete and pressing issue in its own right.True peace depends on it.
The writer is president of Applied Marketing Innovations,
cofounder of the Brand Israel Group,
and strategic communications consultant for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
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Monitoring Palestinian incitement is not enough
By FERN OPPENHEIM11/04/2010
We need to address the issue of the indoctrination of children
Who are taught to hate from a very young age.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently announced that Israel will begin to monitor incitement in the Palestinian Authority, and appointed Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser as government coordinator of this program. According to a recent Haaretz article, reports on incitement will be issued periodically and an “incitement index” will be produced by monitoring broadcasts in the official PA media, statements and actions by senior PA officials, and textbooks. While this is welcome news, and a crucial step forward in creating a more conducive climate for peace, it falls short in terms of adequately communicating the full scope and severity of the problem.
Israeli government officials historically have spoken about the culture of hatred in the PA solely in terms of incitement. In addition to incitement, there is a related and arguably even more egregious phenomenon – indoctrination – which should be monitored, reported on and publicized in its own right. To conflate the two and report only on “incitement” is to unnecessarily blur the true nature of what has been taking place in Palestinian society.
Incitement is defined as “stirring to action, attempting to persuade.” A good example of incitement in the PA would be a fiery speech against Israel by a politician or an imam. Indoctrination, on the other hand, is defined as “instruction in the rudiments of a belief system” or, more simply put, brainwashing.
An example of indoctrination would be a Palestinian TV program that teaches young children that all of Israel is Palestinian territory, and that suicide missions are the highest form of martyrdom.There are critical distinctions between the two which highlight the need to address them separately:
1. Who they target – adults vs. children
When an Imam or politician preaches hate to an adult audience, those assembled generally have the ability to assess the speech and make their own judgments regarding its veracity. Conversely, when children’s TV shows, textbooks, etc. teach young Palestinians that Israelis have no historical ties to the land, that Jews are evil, that terrorism is justified, etc., the children targeted are being brainwashed to believe what they are being taught. Unlike adults, they are not yet able to assess the quality of information being fed to them. They become the unwitting vessels of the poison being served. In this regard, indoctrination is an educational form of child abuse that is like statutory rape of the mind. It is a human-rights violation against which children’s rights activists should be up in arms.
2. The shelf life of the message – temporary vs. forever.
Messages of incitement to adults can be turned on and off like a spigot, depending on the needs of the Palestinian governing body. Once youngsters are indoctrinated, however, they will likely believe the vile things they were taught for the rest of their lives, and act on them. Israel can make all the concessions requested of her tomorrow, yet an entire generation of Palestinians will still harbor the hatred they were spoon-fed to their dying days. Indoctrination is therefore a much greater threat than incitement to the long-term prospects for peace.
As a child of a Holocaust survivor, I have often questioned how so many people could be complicit in the murder of the six million. While there are no simple answers, it is clear that the groundwork for turning a normal society into murderers has to be carefully laid. All forms of propaganda have to be employed to dehumanize the victims and position them as threats to the society.
It is alarming to witness this type of groundwork being laid in the Palestinian territories over the past several years by official bodies and media outlets. When innocent Palestinian children watch their beloved Sesame Street-like TV characters brutally murdered by IDF soldiers, or spend time in summer camps and public squares named after suicide bombers, they are being carefully prepared to harbor lasting enmity and emulate perpetrators of terror.
This indoctrination is the start of a process that results in a culture of blind hatred. It has been allowed to flourish for far too long. Israeli government officials, including those involved in Netanyahu’s new program, must address the brainwashing of Palestinian children as a discrete and pressing issue in its own right.True peace depends on it.
The writer is president of Applied Marketing Innovations,
cofounder of the Brand Israel Group,
and strategic communications consultant for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
About Us Advertise with Us Subscribe RSS
All rights reserved © 1995 - 2009 The Jerusalem Post.
כל הזכויות שמורות © -2009 נט אפיקי תקשורת אינטר מדיה בע”מ
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Thursday, June 7, 2007
Watch: Mickey Mouse teach children to kill and hate
Mickey Mouse: A Terror Mouse?
Palestinian Mickey Mouse Club - The most popular videos are a click away
Mickey Mouse, Muslim-Style
Posted May 16, 2007A Mickey Mouse lookalike named Farfour teaches Palestinian children how to hate on Al-Aqsa TV.
Hamas 'Mickey' Cancelled
Friday, June 1, 2007
Hamas' Mickey Mouse: Teaching Kids to Hate and Kill
by Gil Ronen
Hamas TV has a new children's show which features a Mickey Mouse lookalike. But this Mickey does not romp about with Pluto, nor does he woo Minnie Mouse. Instead – he teaches his young viewers to fight the "Zionist Occupation" and dream of a world dominated by Islam.
The squeaky-voiced Mickey Mouse lookalike, named Farfur, is the star of a weekly children’s program called Tomorrow’s Pioneers on the official Hamas TV station (Al-Aqsa TV), which broadcasts from Gaza via satellite to the entire Arab world.
Farfur and his co-host, a young girl named Saraa’, teach children about such things as the importance of the daily prayers and drinking milk, but also instruct them to hate Israel and the US and support "resistance" – a euphemism for terror.Farfur tells children that they must pray in the mosque five times a day until there is “world leadership under Islamic leadership.” The earnest and soft-spoken Saraa’ explains that the nucleus of the Islamic leadership of the world will be from “all of Palestine,” including Israel. Farfur refers to Israel as “the oppressive invading Zionist occupation,” which the children must "resist."
Saraa’ announces that after death, the children will have to answer to Allah for what they did or did not do for the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and for Palestinian prisoners: “I remind you that Al-Aqsa and the prisoners are a responsibility on our shoulders, and Allah will ask us on Resurrection Day what we gave for their sake," she tells the tots viewing the show.
According to Palestinian Media Watch, "using a character based on an appealing, world-famous and beloved icon like Mickey Mouse to teach Islamic supremacy and resistance as Islamic duty is a powerful and effective way to indoctrinate children."
The program encourages participation by child viewers, who phone in to the show and recite poems with images of hate and violence; for example, “We will destroy the chair of the despots, so they will taste the flame of death,” and, in another poem, "Rafah sings ‘Oh, oh.’ Its answer is an AK-47. We who do not know fear, we are the predators of the forest."
Hamas TV has a new children's show which features a Mickey Mouse lookalike. But this Mickey does not romp about with Pluto, nor does he woo Minnie Mouse. Instead – he teaches his young viewers to fight the "Zionist Occupation" and dream of a world dominated by Islam.
The squeaky-voiced Mickey Mouse lookalike, named Farfur, is the star of a weekly children’s program called Tomorrow’s Pioneers on the official Hamas TV station (Al-Aqsa TV), which broadcasts from Gaza via satellite to the entire Arab world.
Farfur and his co-host, a young girl named Saraa’, teach children about such things as the importance of the daily prayers and drinking milk, but also instruct them to hate Israel and the US and support "resistance" – a euphemism for terror.Farfur tells children that they must pray in the mosque five times a day until there is “world leadership under Islamic leadership.” The earnest and soft-spoken Saraa’ explains that the nucleus of the Islamic leadership of the world will be from “all of Palestine,” including Israel. Farfur refers to Israel as “the oppressive invading Zionist occupation,” which the children must "resist."
Saraa’ announces that after death, the children will have to answer to Allah for what they did or did not do for the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and for Palestinian prisoners: “I remind you that Al-Aqsa and the prisoners are a responsibility on our shoulders, and Allah will ask us on Resurrection Day what we gave for their sake," she tells the tots viewing the show.
According to Palestinian Media Watch, "using a character based on an appealing, world-famous and beloved icon like Mickey Mouse to teach Islamic supremacy and resistance as Islamic duty is a powerful and effective way to indoctrinate children."
The program encourages participation by child viewers, who phone in to the show and recite poems with images of hate and violence; for example, “We will destroy the chair of the despots, so they will taste the flame of death,” and, in another poem, "Rafah sings ‘Oh, oh.’ Its answer is an AK-47. We who do not know fear, we are the predators of the forest."
Hamas' latest conquest: The Walt Disney Co.
Hamas' latest conquest: The Walt Disney Co.
By Bradley Burston
For decades, The Walt Disney Company was known for superhuman tenacity in fighting unauthorized use of its trademark characters.
It was a policy that bordered on the fanatical. To keep its bottomless inventory of universally familiar mice, ducks, dogs, dwarves, villains, sleeping princesses, singing mermaids, Lost Boys and others from endorsing any product or ideology lacking the explicit and prior consent of the Magic Kingdom, the company would go anywhere and do anything, it seemed, sparing no expense or effort.
Until now. Until Hamas.
In recent weeks, when a Mickey Mouse stretch-clone named Farfour began hosting a children's program on Hamas-run Al-Aqsa Television, gently suggesting that the station's youngest viewers take up assault rifles and fight against Israel, the protests came in fast and furious.
But not from Disney.
"Hamas has long used programs aimed at young children to raise a new generation of terrorists," the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement, noting that "an infamous 1998 episode of the program the Children's Club on official Palestinian Authority television had a Mickey Mouse-type figure amidst children praising suicide terrorist attacks against Israelis."
Farfour, whose name means butterfly, used a high-pitched Mickeyesque voice to get his message across. "You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists," Farfour told the audience of his "Tomorrow's Pioneers" program."
We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers."
Even Palestinians thought the show inappropriate. Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said the character represented a "mistaken approach" to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation. He said the show would be taken off the air "for review."
Two days later, however, the show went on as scheduled. In one sequence, Farfour explained that he cheated on his tests in school because "the Jews destroyed my house," and he had lost his books under the rubble.Of the myriad responses, certainly the most striking was that of the Disney company. It said nothing.
Even when the ADL wrote to Robert A. Iger, president & CEO of The Walt Disney Company, urging him to use his company's influence to put a stop "to this egregious and outrageous abuse of your intellectual property, which certainly stands in stark contrast to everything the Walt Disney Company represents," the company sat on its hands.
For nearly two weeks, Disney said nothing, did nothing, held meetings, held still more meetings. The only policy they appeared to adopt was a refusal to return calls asking for comment.
Only this week did the company choose to publicly comment on the show. "We were appalled by the use of our character to disseminate that kind of message," Iger told a meeting of the Society of Business Editors and Writers at the Disneyland Hotel. "I think any time any group seeks to exploit children in that manner, it's despicable."
But Iger added that Disney decided against making a public statement at the time. "We didn't mobilize our forces and seek to either have the clip taken down or to make any broad public statement about it," he said.
"I just didn't think it would have any effect," he continued. "I think it should have been obvious how the company felt about the subject."
So, for The Walt Disney Company and Robert Iger, this word of advice from Hamas' own corner of the world, and a warning:
There is only one way to fight Hamas. You have to be very smart, and very fierce.
If you are smart, but not fierce, Hamas will win.
If you are fierce, but not smart, Hamas will win.
If, however, you are neither smart nor fierce, and, as such, do nothing, you will have done more than merely help Hamas to a victory.
You will have made yourself a target.
By Bradley Burston
For decades, The Walt Disney Company was known for superhuman tenacity in fighting unauthorized use of its trademark characters.
It was a policy that bordered on the fanatical. To keep its bottomless inventory of universally familiar mice, ducks, dogs, dwarves, villains, sleeping princesses, singing mermaids, Lost Boys and others from endorsing any product or ideology lacking the explicit and prior consent of the Magic Kingdom, the company would go anywhere and do anything, it seemed, sparing no expense or effort.
Until now. Until Hamas.
In recent weeks, when a Mickey Mouse stretch-clone named Farfour began hosting a children's program on Hamas-run Al-Aqsa Television, gently suggesting that the station's youngest viewers take up assault rifles and fight against Israel, the protests came in fast and furious.
But not from Disney.
"Hamas has long used programs aimed at young children to raise a new generation of terrorists," the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement, noting that "an infamous 1998 episode of the program the Children's Club on official Palestinian Authority television had a Mickey Mouse-type figure amidst children praising suicide terrorist attacks against Israelis."
Farfour, whose name means butterfly, used a high-pitched Mickeyesque voice to get his message across. "You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists," Farfour told the audience of his "Tomorrow's Pioneers" program."
We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers."
Even Palestinians thought the show inappropriate. Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said the character represented a "mistaken approach" to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation. He said the show would be taken off the air "for review."
Two days later, however, the show went on as scheduled. In one sequence, Farfour explained that he cheated on his tests in school because "the Jews destroyed my house," and he had lost his books under the rubble.Of the myriad responses, certainly the most striking was that of the Disney company. It said nothing.
Even when the ADL wrote to Robert A. Iger, president & CEO of The Walt Disney Company, urging him to use his company's influence to put a stop "to this egregious and outrageous abuse of your intellectual property, which certainly stands in stark contrast to everything the Walt Disney Company represents," the company sat on its hands.
For nearly two weeks, Disney said nothing, did nothing, held meetings, held still more meetings. The only policy they appeared to adopt was a refusal to return calls asking for comment.
Only this week did the company choose to publicly comment on the show. "We were appalled by the use of our character to disseminate that kind of message," Iger told a meeting of the Society of Business Editors and Writers at the Disneyland Hotel. "I think any time any group seeks to exploit children in that manner, it's despicable."
But Iger added that Disney decided against making a public statement at the time. "We didn't mobilize our forces and seek to either have the clip taken down or to make any broad public statement about it," he said.
"I just didn't think it would have any effect," he continued. "I think it should have been obvious how the company felt about the subject."
So, for The Walt Disney Company and Robert Iger, this word of advice from Hamas' own corner of the world, and a warning:
There is only one way to fight Hamas. You have to be very smart, and very fierce.
If you are smart, but not fierce, Hamas will win.
If you are fierce, but not smart, Hamas will win.
If, however, you are neither smart nor fierce, and, as such, do nothing, you will have done more than merely help Hamas to a victory.
You will have made yourself a target.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
NEW PALESTINIAN TEXTBOOKS: A RELIGIOUS DUTY TO DESTROY ISRAEL
In one of the new PA textbooks, 'Arabic Language, Analysis, Literature and Criticism,' the authors write of the 1948 war, "Palestine's war ended with a catastrophe that is unprecedented in history, when the Zionist gangs stole Palestine and expelled its people from their cities, their villages, their lands and their houses, and established the State of Israel." The PMW report comments on this passage that "defining Israel's founding as a 'catastrophe unprecedented in history,' a theft perpetrated by 'Zionist gangs,' together with numerous other hateful descriptions of Israel as 'colonial imperialist' and 'racist,' compounded by the presentation of the conflict as a religious war, leaves no latitude for students to have positive or even neutral attitudes towards Israel. The well-meaning student is left with no logical justification or religious option to accept
The new PA textbooks were presented yesterday by PMW to the Education Committee of the Knesset, after which Committee Chairman Michael Melchior (Labor-Meimad) said, "You can't have agreements while this kind of hatred is inculcated in the children … I intend to demand from Prime Minister [Ehud Olmert] that he present the findings to Abu Mazen [PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas] at their next meeting." The PMW Director, Itamar Marcus, said of these new textbooks teach essentially that "the war over this land is a war for Muslim land, and will end only with the resurrection of the dead. [The books teach that] recognition of
According to the PMW Report, the schoolbooks, the products of the official education arm of the PA, written by Fatah-appointed officials at the Center for Developing the Palestinian Curricula and published by the PA Ministry of Higher Education, are also used by schools in eastern Jerusalem that are under the jurisdiction of – and receive funding from – Israel's Education Ministry. Shlomo Alon, the deputy head of the Pedagogic Secretariat in
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, "As this latest PMW study shows, the PA, even those departments of it that remain under the control of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah, promotes, lauds and encourages terrorism, extremism and hate, making the prospect of peace an impossibility. All the elections, negotiations and concessions in the world will not bring peace so long as the Palestinian Arabs' educational system is based on promotion of hatred and violence against Jews and
"As with last year's report on PA textbooks from the Intelligence and Terrorism Center , these finding demonstrate that no change for the better has taken place in Palestinian education over the past few years. On the contrary, the Palestinian educational curriculum continues to inculcate rejection of
New Palestinian High School Textbooks Reject Existence of Israel, Peace
New textbooks for 12th-grade Palestinian students reject the existence of
New Palestinian high-school textbooks reject existence of
By Or Kashti, Haaretz Correspondent
New textbooks for 12th-grade Palestinian students reject the existence of
The primary findings of the report will be presented to the Knesset Education and Culture Committee today.
"The teachings repeatedly reject Israel's right to exist, present the conflict as a religious battle for Islam, teach Israel's founding as imperialism, and actively portray a picture of the Middle East, both verbally and visually, in which Israel does not exist at all," the group wrote in a February report entitled "From nationalist battle to religious conflict: New 12th Grade Palestinian schoolbooks present a world without Israel."
According to the report, the book describes the establishment of the State of Israel by saying: "
The textbooks were written by the Center for Developing the Palestinian Curricula and introduced by the Palestinian Authority at the end of 2006, according to the report.
"Defining Israel's founding as a 'catastrophe unprecedented in history,' a theft perpetrated by 'Zionist gangs,' together with numerous other hateful descriptions of Israel as 'colonial imperialist' and 'racist,' compounded by the presentation of the conflict as a religious war, leaves no latitude for students to have positive or even neutral attitudes toward Israel," write PMW director Itamar Marcus and associate director Barbara Crook in the report.
Marcus and Crook note that