The recent PMW report PA: Hiding Terror behind Popular Uprising documented increased Palestinian incitement directed at the general population, as part of the Palestinian Authority’s attempt have its terror war against Israel be perceived as a popular uprising.

PMW has received numerous questions as to the meaning of the images of the elephants and the attack birds used in the clip:

The words of the clip included the following:

“… Allah is with us, He is stronger than the Zionists… they are infidel possessors of the elephant. We are... Allah’s flock of Attack Birds. Therefore thrust upon them stones, stones from Hell!" [PATV, September 22, 2002]

This clip is referring to Sura 105 in the Koran, “The Elephant”: “Have you not considered how Allah dealt with the army of the elephant? “Did He not confound their stratagem and send against them flocks of birds which pelted them with clay-stones, so that they became like the withered stalks of plants which cattle have devoured?”

This Sura is a reference to a pre-Islam Ethiopian assault against Mecca. The Ethiopians, attempting to spread Christianity among the Arabs, moved on Mecca from Yemen, employing in their army one or more elephants. According to the Moslem tradition, flocks of birds, sent by Allah, attacked the Ethiopian "possessors of the elephant" with small stones, killing the enemy soldiers. The Christian attack was repelled and Mecca was saved. Based on this Islamic tradition of defeat of the Christian forces, the term "possessors of the elephant" is a common Islamic religious slur, which refers to those who attack Allah and His holy places. (PMW.ORG.IL 09/30/02)