That stands for Palestinian Media Watch, and if you don't, you should. As a matter of fact, you should get on their mailing list because, as Solomon pointed out today, their website sucks (sorry).
Itamar Marcus has for years been publicizing the "other face" of the so-called Mid-east peace process, exposing the contradictions between what the Palestinian Authority has been saying to Western leaders and the Western press and the message it's been sending to its own people via its own media apparatus. The contrasts have always been shocking. In addition to countless articles and lectures, Marcus has also provided valuable testimony to the U.S. Senate on this issue.
Last week I made highly skeptical mention of the latest in a series of promises by Mahmoud Abbas and his cohorts to clean up incitement against Israel on PA TV, especially in the religious sermons that are broadcast weekly. For the umpteenth time, a serious crackdown was pledged. Today, PMW issued a bulletin that gives a good indication of how seriously we can take that pledge.
Pressuring mothers to celebrate sons’ martyrdom key to PA’s success promoting suicide terrorism
By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
Introduction
Creating a supportive social environment for terrorists has been a critical factor in the Palestinian Authority’s successful promotion of suicide terrorism. To this end, PA policy has been to honor terrorists as Shahids (Martyrs for Allah), and to teach Palestinian mothers to celebrate when their children die as terrorist Shahids. Categorizing these dead terrorists as Shahids grants them the highest honor a Muslim can achieve, and is therefore cause for a mother to celebrate, according to this PA teaching.
This pressure on Palestinian mothers to celebrate their dead sons as Shahids continues under the regime of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and even increased this past week with repeated PA TV promotion connected to International Woman’s Day.
Preaching before an audience that included Abbas, Sheikh Yusuf Juma’ Salamah said in Friday’s sermon on PA TV that the ideal Palestinian woman is like Al Khansah, the heroine of Islamic tradition who celebrated her four sons’ death in battle by thanking God for the honor. Salamah, the PA Minister of Waqf, quoted Al Khansah: “Praise Allah, who granted me honor with their deaths.†[PA TV, March 11, 2005]
It’s important to note that this was the first Friday sermon broadcast since the PA announced last week that it would control and vet all Friday sermons delivered in West Bank and Gaza strip mosques. This portrayal of the ideal Palestinian woman as one who willingly sacrifices her sons as Shahids, therefore, continues to represent official PA ideology – especially since this sermon was delivered in the presence of Abbas.
(Unfortunately, the full text of this important article isn't posted on PMW's website yet. It probably will be within the next few days. In the meantime, Solomon has posted a more extensive excerpt here.) Update: now posted, here.
While Abu Mazen is still telling his people that a woman can aspire to no higher goal than raising a son who will blow himself up in the process of murdering some Jews, what, again, is it that Israel is supposed to sacrifice to keep the "peace process" on track?
