Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin

October 2, 2005

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PA: Arab contact with Israel
is like sex with a prostitute
By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

The West views diplomatic contacts between once belligerent countries as an important and necessary step towards peace, and accordingly has welcomed the recent diplomatic contacts between Israel and some Muslim and Arab states. However, these events - notably meetings between Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Pakistan and other Muslim countries - has incensed the Palestinian Authority, which vehemently opposes what it calls the "normalization" of relations with Israel.

Sign above prostitute´s door: "Israel" [Al-Hayat Al- Jadida, September 19, 2005]

Palestinian organizations and the controlled media in the Palestinian Authority have undertaken an ongoing campaign of thorough condemnation of these recent diplomatic contacts. The PA official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, went so far at to visually depict the meetings with Israel as Arabs literally on top of a prostitute called ´Israel,´ as in the picture above.

The Palestinian National Committee Against Normalization condemned any movement of Muslim countries towards improved relations with Israel, labeling such a move "a stab in the collective back of the Palestinian people."
[Palestine News Network, September 19, 2005]

In addition to the prostitute depiction, the official Palestinian Authority daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, continues publishing cartoons maligning those Arabs and Muslims who seek "normalization" with Israel. The recent meetings, which are far from normalization, are typically depicted as either a betrayal of the Palestinians or as a threat to the Arab and Muslim world.

The following are further examples of cartoons in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, published as a result of these diplomatic meetings:

Palestinian violence resulted in only one apple, "Gaza,"
whereas Sharon is rewarded with a flood of "Normalization"

Top: "Gaza." Bottom: "Normalization with the Arab states."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, September 29, 2005]

Israel is seen as taking over the Arab marketplace at the expense of the Arab world

Above store on right: "Common Arab Market." Sign in center: "To the Israeli Market."
Above store on left: "Welcome, Arab brothers." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, September 29, 2005]

Arabs are depicted drunk from American influence, forgetting the Palestinians

Worried Palestinian: "Al-Aqsa [Mosque] is in danger."
Arab Drunk from American wine: "Err ... Isn´t that in Israel!?"
[Al-Hayat Al- Jadida, September 17, 2005]

Arab diplomats are presented as having been outmaneuvered
by Israel and are literally falling off the diplomatic arena

"Arab Diplomacy." [Al-Hayat Al- Jadida, September 9, 2005]

The attacks on Muslim normalization with Israel are not limited to the official daily. The following is one example, from today´s Al-Quds, October 2, 2005:

Arabs are criticized for secretly submitting to Israel,
symbolized by the secret "kissing" of Israel´s hand

On left: "Secret normalization." On right: "Public normalization."
[Al-Quds, October 2, 2005]

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