Arutz Sheva

NBC Cited For Martyr-Encouragement Report

NBC has come under fire for a recent report exposing some of the "encouragement to martyrdom" given Palestinian children by their elders. "The Palestinians are [now] calling on the youngest to join the battle," reports Martin Fletcher, who used material provided him by Palestinian Media Watch, "and [are] using a stunning tactic: commercials on Palestinian TV asking children, 'Drop your toys. Pick up rocks.'" The commercials show one of the most famous "heroes" of the Palestinian violence - 12-year-old Mohammed al-Dura dying in his father's arms, caught in a hail of ostensibly Israeli bullets. [Much evidence has since been produced indicating that the bullets were actually Palestinian.] The PA television clip then shows Mohammed in paradise, urging other children to follow him. The violent scene of Mohammed's killing shifts to an image of the boy running through a sunlit field in "paradise" where he greets other boys who sit together in the green grass.

The NBC report then shows a scene of Mohammed's classroom, where the teacher shouts, "Are you afraid?" and the children shout in unison, "No!... We ask Allah to destroy the Jews!" Fletcher concludes his report, "Already, young boys are learning how to fight. Summer camp teaches how to resist the Israelis. But now they are being taught not to fear death [images of young boys in military training, crawling under barbed wire and other drills, are shown]. The greatest glory, they are told, is to be a martyr."

The Palestinian Authority is now attempting to fight back against this "negative press." A press release of this week accuses NBC of “irresponsible journalism if not forgery and manipulation." Palestinian Media Watch, under the directorship of Itamar Marcus, is also not spared PA wrath: “Mr. Fletcher based his entire news report on material presented to him by the extreme right-wing Israeli propagandist and inciter Itamar Marcus and his propaganda organization called “Palestinian Media Watch." PMW notes that the PA has not challenged even one fact in the PMW report. The NBC report can be viewed on line at "www.msnbc.com/news/570581.asp

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2001