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Monday, November 11, 2002
Interview: Voice of Palestinian reverts to pre-Oslo orientation

Interview: Voice of Palestinian reverts to pre-Oslo orientation

Aaron Lerner Date: 11 November 2002

Michael Widlanski is an expert in the Arab media and a lecturer at the
Rothberg School of the Hebrew University. IMRA interviewed Widlanski, in
English, on 11 November:

IMRA: Israel Television Channel One's Arab Affairs Correspondent Oded Granot
reported on Mabat tonight that the PA was against the murderous attack at
Kibbutz Metzer. In contrast, Channel Two Arab Affairs Correspondent Ehud Ya'
ari, ridiculed Arafat's announcement of an investigation - noting that he
did not call for the arrest of the perpetrators - or even their being barred
from his Fatah. How do you see the situation?

Widlanski: This morning we got proof again that Arafat has basically
reverted to the pre-Oslo model of Yasser Arafat. His Voice of Palestine
radio station - his official radio station - opened up its news this morning
with two items: First the heroic martyrdom of two citizens who were blown up
in their car North of Tulkarem. The occupation forces claim that they were
about to carry out an operation."

Pay attention to that first item. It refers to the "heroic martyrdom of two
citizens" and "they were about to carry out an operation."

In other words people who were about to carry out a suicide attack inside
Israel are referred to as "citizens" and "they were heroically martyred".

The second item is the Kibbutz Metzer item: "The Brigades of the Martyrs of
Al Aqsa kill five Israelis in an armed attacked on the colony of Metzer."

The "colony". The term they use in Arabic is "musta'amara", which is a very
very denigrating term. It is a term that is even worse than the term
"musteltanau" which means settlement. It is a term that is not used
commonly in Arab parlance.

This announcement was read by the senior anchor of Voice of Palestine
himself, Nizar al-Ghul, opening up the morning news.

This is a very significant fact. It comes less than a week after the attack
on Kfar Sava - also inside the Green Line. Then also there was no
condemnation. Instead, Arafat's personal spokesman, Nabil Abu Rodeina, was
on radio and he said "all of this is the fault of the Israelis".

There was not a word of condemnation. Not a word of restraint. Not a word
of disapproval. It wasn't even termed "counterproductive".

Now later in this morning's news show, at 7:40 in the morning, Nizar al-Ghul
continued with a commentary and this is what he said:

"Well, dear listeners, according to Israeli sources the infiltration
operation occurred Sunday night in the village of Awanea, what the Israelis
call Kibbutz Metzer, leaving five people dead. According to Israeli
sources, the operation took place at around 11:00PM as two armed men
infiltrated into the kibbutz. After the event the spokesman for the Al Aqsa
Martyr's Brigade which belongs to the Fatah movement took responsibility for
the operation which left five dead and eleven wounded - three of them in
critical condition."

IMRA: That's to say that in their own broadcast they made the connection
between the Al Aqsa Brigade and Fatah clear.

Widlanski: Absolutely. They were practically bragging about it.

Listen to the last line: "Those who carried out the operation made good
their escape."

In other words, they were listing the Israeli casualties - even more than
really occurred - and they were counting them as a real operation.

Now what's interesting about this is the woman reading the 10 minute news
summary on the 8 AM newsreel (that is the big news of the day -remember we
are in the middle of Ramadan now so the big news program is at 8 AM rather
than 7 AM) uses the identical language as the previous reports.

She refers to the "operation" (not "terrorist attack" - nothing like that)
"at the Metzer colony". She also refers to it as "hujoum musaleh" - "armed
attack".

The language they are using is the language of what the Palestinians have
always called the armed struggle.

Basically Arafat has gone beyond, through his people in Voice of Palestine
(and they couldn't be doing this on their own), even what so-called
"moderate" Hani al Hassan said recently when he declared that attacking Jews
beyond the Green Line was fine.

In fact, in the 8 AM report they said that five "amustamaline" - five
"colonists" were killed. That is to say that if you are killed you are ipso
facto a devil.

This is basically a return to pre-1993 rhetoric and it should give a lot of
people cause to worry because it is showing an inverse reaction because as
Israel and the United States loosen the restraints on Arafat and actually
give him money he actually gets worse.

IMRA: What kind of control is there on Voice of Palestine Broadcasts?

Widlanski: Very tight. Arafat controls all the vetting of the people in the
station. If there is any doubt about how to cover something they ignore it
for a while and wait for official instruction.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
pager 03-6106666 subscriber 4811
Website: http://www.imra.org.il

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