PATV lauds Internet site calling for Israel's elimination

Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

Palestinian Authority TV hosts held a discussion about the messages of one group on the popular FACEBOOK internet social network, which openly call for Israel's elimination. The group home page called:
"Israel" is not a country!... Delete from Facebook as a country!"
includes a map of all of Israel marked as "Palestine". Every time Israel is written it appears within quotation marks - "Israel" - and PA TV hosts expressed praise and unreserved support for this hate ideology, saying: "There is an abundance of information [in the group] about Palestinian history and about the connection of the Palestinian people to this land, which has, of course, been stolen from us. Perhaps this is the most delicate wording we can find: "stolen from us".
"This is a nice development, that we use internet sites for this purpose."
"The beauty of this topic [the internet] is that is should be used to further this cause."


The following is some of the hate content on the homepage of this site that PA TV welcomed and praised:

"Israel" is not a country!... ...Delete from Facebook as a country!
... Our goal is to reach a peaceful solution. "Israel" is presently an Apartheid regime. This group strongly condemns racism and does not tolerate it. Criticism of illegitimate Apartheid-"Israel", which has no right to exist, cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic,. We only advocate the peaceful transformation of Palestine into one single, united, peaceful, democratic state from the river to the sea.
... Many Jews, including Rabbis, and religious Jews oppose Zionism and believe that Judaism prohibits it (and it does. Zionism is a secular concept, and there are things in the Old Testament that forbid Zionism ...; "Israel" barely tolerates Judaism and its actions go against the beliefs and teaching Judaism.
... . Arabs are Semites and are descendants of Abraham, unlike most Jews, who are mainly Europeans and Americans. So really, European Zionists who are racist towards Arabs are the ones who are "anti-Semitic ... Semitic Jews are aware of this fact, and that's why they don't go to "Israel" (or flee from "Israel") and choose to live in the United States or even stay in other parts of the middle east over living in the Secular, non-Semitic, European-occupied territory [i.e., Israel-ed] !! ... .
Spread the word
... Please invite your friends !!! ... Let me make it clear for all who do not understand. This group is not against peace. If facebook changed the name [of Israel-ed] to "Occupied Palestine", I think we could all agree that, that is a just solution. ...



The following is discussion excerpted from PA TV show for Palestinian teenagers.
The hostess of the show:

Ala'a Ghosha: " Our final topic for the day is Facebook: Facebook as a new battleground between the Arabs and Israel. "Israel is not a country!... Delete from Facebook as a country!" This is the title of an Arab forum which includes thousands of Americans, foreigners and even Jews, on the famous internet site Facebook. The number of members to date is around 36,000. The group demands that Israel be regarded as an occupying entity and not as a country... From what I have observed and read, there is an abundance of information [in the forum] about Palestinian history and about the connection of the Palestinian people to this land, which has, of course, been stolen from us. Perhaps this is the most delicate wording we can find - "stolen from us".
...another hostess on the show, Tala Halawa: "This is a nice development, that we use internet sites for this purpose..."
Ala'a Ghosha: "The beauty of this topic [the internet] is that is should be used to further this cause. We should direct it toward the path of peace and toward obtaining our rights".


[PATV, March 9 2008]