Eric Greenstein 22/10/2015
Abu MazenAdnan al-DamiriAyman MohyeldinFadi AlunHasbaraMustafa al-KhatibpropagandasmartphonesYussuf Tabib
In accusing Israel of murdering terrorist Ahmad Manasra,
Abu Mazen was caught red-handed • This was one lie too many, and even the international
media could not remain indifferent • In an age of security cameras and videos
shot on mobile devices, the Palestinian Authority has been left behind, and its
famous propaganda machine has suffered a heavy blow
The PLO version of the Walking Dead: The "dead"
terrorist in an Israeli hospital. Photo: GPO, Flash90
It was a pretty embarrassing moment for MSNBC. It isn’t
every day that a journalist reporting from the field is reproached by a news
anchor during a live broadcast for distorting reality. But that’s exactly what
happened last week in connection with a stabbing attempt at Damascus Gate.
In case you haven’t seen the viral video, here is what
happened: Ayman Mohyeldin, an MSNBC reporter on the far left of the political
spectrum who formerly worked for Al Jazeera, was reporting from the field on an
incident unfolding before his very eyes. Mohyeldin described how Israeli police
shot a young unarmed Arab who was fleeing for no apparent reason. What he did
not know was that several seconds before his report a video of the incident,
shot on a mobile device, was shown on the broadcast, and it was clear from the video
that the Arab was holding a knife. Thus an anti-Israel libel, which would
certainly have been widely used for propaganda purposes, was immediately
refuted.
This incident, which may result in another reporter entering
the job market, clearly demonstrates how the current media battle is different
from previous rounds of Palestinian terror: This time, everything is happening
here, in our backyard, under the watchful eyes of a network of police and
mobile cameras. The Palestinians are suddenly discovering that cameras and
social networks make it very difficult for them to sell their narrative. Since
the sympathy they garner is largely a result of their well-oiled and effective
propaganda machine, the current violence may be an error with much greater significance
than at first appears.
Below are links to videos showing the events of the past few
days. We recommend that readers who prefer not to watch these difficult scenes
avoid clicking on the links.
The Walking Dead, the Violent Moderates, and the Innocent
Murderers
Abu Mazen, the Palestinian Authority president, discovered
the new situation the hard way. In a speech he gave several days ago, he
attempted to make Ahmad Manasra a new symbol of Palestinian resistance,
emphatically accusing Israel of the “execution of our children in cold blood.”
At the same time, Manasra was being depicted on Arab social networks as the new
Muhammad al-Dura, a boy Palestinians claim was shot by the IDF during the
second intifada in a gun battle with armed Palestinians.
But what you can do in Ramallah you can’t do in Jerusalem.
It wasn’t long before video clips were posted online showing 13-year-old
Palestinian terrorist Manasra with his 15-year-old cousin on a killing spree in
the streets of Jerusalem, attacking Israeli civilians with a knife, including a
Jewish youth who was hospitalized in critical condition. Furthermore, Israel
released photographs proving that Manasra was alive and receiving good
treatment at an Israeli hospital. An embarrassed Abu Mazen attempted to limit the
damage, and an English-language press release issued by his office referred to
“the shooting of our children in cold blood.” But even this allegation was
quickly exposed when the head of the hospital where Manasra is being treated
announced that there were no signs he had been shot.
Abu Mazen was caught red-handed, which did not escape the
international media’s notice. Even newspapers that are generally far from being
pro-Israel, such as the New York Times and theWashington Post, criticized
Abu Mazen for the lie of the “living dead.” The Washington
Post went even further, with its editorial gently
hinting that Abu Mazen is not being truthful (“Mahmoud Abbas has adopted an
ambivalent position”) and calling him “irrelevant” in terms of control over the
Palestinian “street.” Even prominent Jewish journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, who is
firmly on the left, wrote harsh criticism in The Atlantic of the
Palestinians’ murderous anti-Semitism, identifying it as the source of the
violence.
Jibril Rajoub, a member of the Fatah leadership and chairman
of the Palestinian Football Association, had this to say about the terrorists:
“These are their heroic deeds, the lone-wolf attacks are heroic acts. I am
proud of those who carry them out and I congratulate them.” Rajoub added that
since “the international community does not accept buses blowing up in Tel
Aviv,” it is better not to get dragged into this, but to continue with
individual attacks. He believes that the “will for the martyr,” posted on
Facebook by one of the terrorists, “should be studied in schools.” Other
officials on the PLO Central Committee, such as Azzam al-Ahmed, called for “an
expansion of the cycle of popular resistance,” and Abbas Zaki went so far as to
suggest that a “war room” be established to coordinate all terrorist activity.
Muhammad Dahlan, former head of the Preventive Security Force in Gaza, wrote
similar things on his Facebook page, while PLO Executive Committee member
Mahmoud Ismail called the
murder of Eitam and Naama Henkin in front of their four small children “a
national duty.”
The Evidence Speaks for Itself
Saeb Erekat, like his boss, accused Israel at a press conference of
murdering children. When Erekat, who is head of the Palestinian negotiating
team, a member of the PLO Central Committee, and one of the most prominent
“partners” of the various peace initiatives, called on the UN to
immediately come to investigate the “kangaroo courts,” he was referring
specifically to Fadi Alun, who stabbed a 15-year-old Jewish
boy and caused him moderate wounds, and Mustafa al-Khatib, who attempted to stab a police
officer at the Lions’ Gate and was shot on the spot. In keeping with the
accepted practice in Palestinian diplomacy, Erekat added that the Palestinians
had begun to gather evidence in order to file a complaint at the Hague against
Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, and
the head of the Shin Bet.
But it appears that even in the Hague they would give
greater credence to concrete evidence in the form of bleeding, wounded Jews in
hospitals, many Israeli police officers, and civilians present at events while
they were taking place. This may be why Al-Hayat
Al-Jadida, official newspaper of the
Palestinian Authority, was quick to claim that
police planted the knife on al-Khatib to justify shooting (the police claimed
there were two knives). After all, it is common knowledge that Israeli police
are in the habit of shooting random Palestinians and carrying kitchen
knives—part of their official equipment—in order to incriminate them.
Violence for the Sake of Violence
Yhe profiles of some of the attackers, which
are revealed immediately on social media, show that reasons such as poverty,
discrimination, the occupation, or backwardness do not explain their violence.
The attackers themselves, in their authentic public statements, leave no room
for doubt that theirs is a murderous ideology and hatred that is essentially
religious and nationalist and is directed against Jews as Jews.
Who’s Really Violating the Status Quo?
While it’s true that the number of Jews ascending the Temple Mount has increased in recent
years, the status quo restricts the behavior of Jews on the Temple Mount, not
their numbers. In any case, it’s worth noting that the numbers are small: While
there have been some 3.5 million Muslim visitors to the Temple Mount in recent
years and another 80,000 Christians, only 12,000 of the visitors have been
Jews—or in other words, only about 0.3 percent.
Anyone who has been on the Temple Mount in recent years
recognizes the phenomenon. When Jews approach the center of the Temple Mount
plaza, a regular commotion begins: dozens of activists, mainly female, gather
around the Jewish visitors, screaming loudly and threatening them. “Al-Aqsa is
in danger, Allahu Akbar,” they call out, loudly and rhythmically, in
order to interrupt the tour and the tour guide, and in some cases, as the
following video clips show, they have spit at the visitors and attempted to
attack them.
These violent groups, the Murabitun and Murabitat, are
funded by Hamas and the Islamic movement, and their function is to keep Jews
away from the Temple Mount. In an interview withChannel 2, one
of the activists said: “I am prepared to die for al-Aqsa and to commit suicide
and become a martyr for it.” Only last month, before the Jewish holidays, it
was reported that
activists from these organizations stay overnight on the Temple Mount complex
in order to ”prevent the Jews from entering.”
Thus, the Jews enter the complex frightened, in small
groups, and with heavy police security. All of them are accompanied by waqf
officials, who monitor every movement by Jewish visitors and report to each
other using walkie talkies. Recently, the government decided to ban these
organizations and to work to dismantle their financial infrastructure. This
does not violate the status quo; it defends it.
