Now I'm quite prepared to believe that the Palestinian Authority's TV service is normally a sane mixture of balanced programmes and moderate voices, even if I've never seen any of them. I know they have had a track record of carrying some truly horrendous external broadcasts of sermons by radical Islamist preachers with anti-semitic messages to spread. But it is possible to assume that the TV programming the PA commissions or buys in itself avoids these horrors.
So it's profoundly depressing to see that Palestinian Media Watch has some appalling clips from very recently screened PA TV series. The one I want to mention is from a drama series currently being transmitted over the month of Ramadan. It was broadcast on October 6th of this year.
To quote the PMW summary:
The Canaanite is a Palestinian-produced series for daily viewing during the month of Ramadan. The story centers on a young man who, according to the script, underwent torture in Israeli prisons and feigns insanity.
The scene opens with a bride dancing by herself in her flowing gown on the beach. An Israeli soldier sees her from his watchtower, and then races to the beach to murder her. Her murder is followed by the sick evil laughter of the hook-nosed Israeli soldier.
Filfil, the series' hero, runs and holds the dead woman in the water. Unable to revive her, he stands in rage, races off and fires his rifle in the air. The next scene sees the hero wake up- it had all been a dream.
So, one may say, this is a series about a tortured man's fantasies. The trouble is, you have to see the way they have presented the Israeli soldier. This is not just a hook-nosed actor. This is an actor wearing a truly grotesque false hooked nose that evokes the worst propaganda of Der Stuermer. The evil laughter also reproduces the pantomime stereotype of the evil Jew gloating over the murder of an innocent girl who he has gratuitously shot dead. It is just so sick. It is beyond belief that the management of the PA allows stuff like this to be transmitted. Whether it's representative of PA output or not is neither here nor there. One clip like this is one too many.
The clip can be accessed here.
The current batch of Saudi cartoons are particularly amusing too. The Religious Policeman has some fine examples - http://muttawa.blogspot.com/ - Look for 'Today's Cartoon' and (further down) 'Four cartoons'.
Posted by: Steve M | October 11, 2005 at 01:25 AM
Steve, I'd expect it of Saudi Arabia. In my context, I'm looking at the fact that there is a sizeable constituency of people who think the Palestinian Authority is a genuine partner for peace. That's how it represents itself...road map and all that, and shaking hands with Ariel Sharon. I think one should have rather low expectations on that front, but propaganda like this being put out manages to limbo dance its way even below those....
Posted by: Judy | October 11, 2005 at 07:42 AM
The media looks at it in a different way - Palestinian antisemitism and incitement is somehow ignored, yet when Galloway on Question Time in relation to a point about MEMRI simply repeats the mantra "It's an Israeli website - it's Israeli - it's Israeli - it's Israeli", to the guffaws, cheers and sniggers of the "cross-section" audience, you know you have an "asymmetry problem".
Posted by: Eamonn | October 11, 2005 at 12:08 PM
Where has Judy been all this time, to write that 'it is beyond belief that the management of the PA allows stuff like this to be transmitted'?
Has she seen the translations from Palestinian schoolbooks or heard the sermons in PA controlled mosques? A quick look at the MEMRI site would educate her about the virtues being propagated by Palestinian 'peace-makers'.
Posted by: Herschel Zimonas | October 11, 2005 at 01:19 PM
Hershel, if you read the contents of my blog, you will see I very regularly quote from MEMRI and similar sites. If you cannot write comments in a reasonable and constructive tone, and you cannot avoid being aggressive, please avoid commenting here.
Posted by: Judy | October 11, 2005 at 05:01 PM
It's very sad. I knew Abbas' politics but I had hoped that he was a pragmatist with strength enough to deliver a pragmatic agenda.
Eamonn, you're quite right. Allowing the braying of a mob to the racist outbursts of that nasty man is the BBC equivalent of 'The Canaanite'. In its comparative subtlety and most viewers' general assumption of 'BBC neutrality', Question Time also limbos pretty low.
Posted by: Steve M | October 11, 2005 at 06:08 PM
Why does this surprise you? Do you think it even has an effect on the Palestinian population? Watching a film is nothing compared to the humiliation at the hands of the occupying military. There are many honourable Israeli soldiers at checkpoints but there are many many others who treat Palestinians like animals. Worrying about a little film when the reality is worse seems ridiculous to me.
If you're worried that the IDF will get a "bad image" then worrying about a little film like this is stupid. Stop the racist actions of trigger happy arab haters.
Posted by: Jay Paul | October 20, 2005 at 09:20 AM