PA attacks PMW: PMW report on Fatah’s youth magazine “incites against the Fatah Movement, the PA, and the Waed magazine that is published by Fatah”

PA attacks PMW for “inciting” because PMW exposed the content of PA/Fatah education:

• “The material we [PMW] found in the Waed magazine was much worse than what we found in the Palestinian schoolbooks… We see Fatah’s worldview in full… all of Israel needs to disappear, and a Palestinian state needs to be established in its place; and that there can be no compromise.”

• “The Israeli cities and the entire territory of Israel is described as part of occupied Palestine or ‘stolen Palestine.’”

• “Fatah presents itself as the one leading the armed and ongoing Palestinian struggle, which will reach its end only when Israel is erased.”

[WAFA, official PA news agency,
citing PMW findings, claiming this is incitement]

Responding to an Israeli news article on Palestinian Media Watch’s report on Fatah’s magazine Waed for children ages 6-15, which exposed that Fatah educates its children to reject Israel’s right to exist, admire terrorists, and seek Israel’s destruction, the PA is accusing PMW of “inciting against the Fatah Movement and the PA.” The accusation was made by WAFA, the PA’s official news agency, in its weekly report on “incitement and racism” in the Israeli media.

Ironically, the PA news agency accuses PMW of incitement for exposing and accurately quoting PA/Fatah’s own education. The PA does not claim that PMW’s research was faulty or that our translations were incorrect, rather the PA presents PMW’s precise exposure of the truth about their education as “incitement.”

PMW’s report was presented already to Norwegian Members of Parliament and will be presented to members of US Congress and other parliaments in the coming months.

Click to read PMW’s report on Waed in pdf

Click to read the story in Israel’s largest daily newspaper Yisrael Hayom in English

The following is the PA’s news agency’s attack on PMW’s “incitement:

“The Palestinian [official PA] news agency WAFA has monitored the incitement and racism in the Israeli media …

In the paper Israel Hayom an article [on PMW’s report] was published entitled ‘This is how PA kids are brainwashed,’ which incites against the Fatah Movement, the PA, and the Waed magazine that is published by Fatah (refers to PMW report “The PA/Fatah Vision for Israel’s Destruction: A study of Fatah’s Waed magazine for children ages 6-15”). The article [cites PMW which] claimed that the [Waed] magazine falsifies history and spreads lies, as ‘Terror, murder, and a call to eliminate Israel, the occupying colonialist state, in addition to the invention of 5,000 years of Palestinian-Canaanite existence in this land, dominate the content in this magazine, which is meant for children ages 6-15.’

The article [cites PMW which] claimed: ‘Fatah’s rewriting of the past generates its vision for the future. The Israeli cities and the entire territory of Israel is described as part of occupied Palestine or with the expression “stolen Palestine.” Fatah presents itself as the one leading the armed and ongoing Palestinian struggle, which will reach its end only when Israel is erased.’

It also [quotes Itamar Marcus, PMW director who] said: ‘The material we found in the Waed magazine was much worse than what we found in the Palestinian schoolbooks and because of which the European Union (EU) and other bodies stopped their funding to the PA. Here we see Fatah’s worldview in full, and it is built on demonization, war, and destroying Israel. Waed’s ideology is that all of Israel needs to disappear, and a Palestinian state needs to be established in its place; and that there can be no compromise.’

The article [quotes Itamar Marcus who] said: ‘If this is the PA’s education, there is no peace process. We [PMW] call on all the governments and bodies funding the PA to condition their monetary support on erasing the hatred and encouragement of terror from the education of the PA and Fatah, as with education like this the PA and Fatah have proven that the peace process is just a show.’”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Nov. 29, 2021]

Waed Magazine is published by the Lion Cubs and Flowers movement (Fatah’s movement for young boys and girls) – which is run by the Fatah Mobilization and Organization Commission. Waed is distributed in schools and at Fatah events for children and it is also published on the movement’s website, defining itself as “a cultural monthly that deals with issues related to children aged 6-15.” The magazine contains quizzes, short stories, and educational information, some of which promote hate and terror, deny Israel’s right to exist, praise “the armed struggle” (i.e., violence and terror), rewrite/erase Israel’s history, glorify Martyrdom-death, and praise imprisoned and dead terrorists.

Reprinted with author’s permission from Palestinian Media Watch