Last weekend, a 13-year-old Palestinian shot an Israeli father and son near the entrance to the City of David National Park in Jerusalem. The incident was not surprising.
Since the Oslo Accords were signed on Sept. 13, 1993, many have thought of the Palestinian Authority as the reasonable partner, working in opposition to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Lions’ Den and other terrorist groups. It is true that they oppose these groups, in coordination with the IDF—to save their own skins.
However, they have used, and continue to use, every possible means—the media, textbooks, pageants, sports events and summer camps—to indoctrinate Palestinian children with the belief that there is only one state, named “Palestine,” that extends from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. And worse still, that becoming a “martyr,” and killing innocent Israeli and American civilians, is the greatest thing one can possibly do for one’s people and one’s nation.
Itamar Marcus, Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, is one of the world’s foremost experts on the P.A. He travels the world speaking to members of Congress, parliaments, and governments presenting PMW’s findings, that have literally changed the way the world sees the P.A.
Marcus has devoted the last 30 years of his life to exposing the P.A.’s child abuse, and why it is time that people stop believing that the P.A. is the “good cop” to the terrorist “bad cop.”
He wrote the reports that exposed how the P.A. names schools, sporting events and streets after terrorist murders; revealed the hate and terror promotion in the P.A.’s schoolbooks; brought to the world’s attention the P.A.’s indoctrination of its children to seek martyrdom; and uncovered that the P.A. rewards all terrorist prisoners with high salaries. As a result, four countries have cut off all funding to the P.A., and many more countries have significantly cut funding.
The P.A. has long disparaged Marcus and his organization. Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi called PMW a “toxic organization,” and P.A. No. 2 Jibril Rajoub called Marcus “the Goebbels of the 21st Century.”
By contrast, ZOA, EMET, and Israel Media Watch have all honored Marcus and PMW with prestigious awards, and The Algemeiner named Marcus one of the world’s “top 100 people positively influencing Jewish life or the State of Israel.”