RAMALLAH, March 20, 2011 (WAFA) - Palestine News and Information Agency WAFA monitored incitement and racism against the Palestinians and Arabs published by the Israeli media between March 6 and 11.  

Under the title: “Palestinians are the ones who shoots at the army and not settlers” broadcaster Yaron Dekel hosted in his 'All Talk' show on Israel Radio Reserve Major, Barak Okavi, to discuss a new Israeli army training ; where soldiers are trained to confront settlers Triggering controversy in the Israeli streets.

Okavi, a religious settler, reassured the settlers by saying: 'who attacks and shoots at the Israeli army on a daily basis are Palestinians not settlers, and who sincerely serves in the Israeli army are settlers from Judea and Samaria'.

Noting that the settlement issue presence in the Israeli media was strong this week, where it mostly criticized the Israeli army violent evacuation of the illegal settlement 'Havat Gilad', while no crimes of the Israeli army against Palestinians is condemned or criticized. 

Under the title “We must Make Detention conditions harder on Palestinian prisoners to retrieve Shalit”, Ran Ben Yamene, in the “Today” program on Reshet Bet, discussed on March 3,the parliamentary lobby visit to Israeli Ofer Prison for the case of the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.

He pointed out the lobby members' resentment of the good Palestinian prisoners detention conditions while Shalit suffers in captivity since 1715 days.

Shai Silber, Resht Bet Radio Correspondent, questioned in his report: do detention conditions have to be tightened to exert pressure on Hamas to Release Shalit? Is this the way to complete his return deal?

Israel Knesset member said: Hamas prisoners are held in good conditions, the Israeli government and the Red Cross should reconsider the visitation issue; where the Red Cross meet with prisoners once every three months and prisoners enjoy a family visit once every two weeks.

In the religious newspaper, Yated Ne’eman, Sh. Wasserman wrote under the title “ the call to prayer is inhumane”  on March 7,  residents of Hadar, Neve Sha’anan and Caramel neighborhoods demand to reduce the sound of prayer calls, particularly in the early morning hours.

In addition he wrote that Police Chief, Ahuva Tomer, had reached an agreement on the intensity of the sound of speakers in mosques, but after Ahuva’s tragic death, religious figures violated the agreement and the sound of speakers became unbearable.

Residents of the areas sent a letter to Arab Knesset members which said: 'please stop screaming in the middle of the day and night, it is inhuman'.

The Famous Anchorman, Dan Margalit, wrote in ‘Israel today’ newspaper an article titled “The movie ‘Jenin Jenin’ a false incitement against Israeli army” on March 7,  that shows a clear incitement on Palestinian Artist, Mohammad Bakri, due to filming  his false documentary  movie 'Jenin Jenin'  which was produced to de-legitimize Israel.

Margalit claimed: “for years now this movie has deprived our soldiers from sleep who faced many risks in order not to harm the innocent…they did not do any of what Bakri’s movie presented, such as running over Palestinians by tanks’ chains during the battle in Jenin, This movie notably affected Israel right in defending itself, a wide audience will believe lies showed in that movie, all this is part of the campaign to delegitimize the State of Israel”.

It should be noted that the movie documented the crimes of the Israeli army against Palestinian civilians in Jenin refugee camp, during the second intifada in 2002.

Ron Breiman wrote on march 7, in “Settlement activities are legal and the so-called Israeli occupation is simply a lie” on the (NRG) website an incitement article against the Israeli left in which he expressed his anger of the left use of the word ‘occupation’ to describe Israel's control on the Palestinian Territory, where he considered the Israeli presence in these lands legitimate.

He said: ' what is difficult to explain is the idea of preventing Jews from living in the heart of the Land of Israel, Jewish human rights on their land is less than the rights of their enemies who want to kill them and what is unexplainable is that the people of Israel and the Israeli army are occupying the land of Israel…the lie of ‘occupation’ is the mother of all sins and Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, must refrain his support of the two-states solution..All what left wants is to establish a state for the enemies and to carry out an ethnic cleansing of the loyal Jews from the heart of the land of Israel'. 

Dror Edar wrote in ‘Israel Today’ newspaper an incitement article “Palestinian recognition of the Jewishness (Jewish character) of Israel leads to peace” on March 9, in which he warned of establishing a Palestinian state, claiming that it would be an existential threat to the State of Israel.

He claimed:' we are going through bad situation in the recent period.. The region that surrounds us is troubled and agitated...There is a big battle that aims to drag us into this dark hole; which is Instability and existential threat…they want to force us and force the prime minister to believe the false Palestinian story; which says that the conflict is a struggle over land only'.

He said: ' the unilateral announcement about giving the Palestinian authority additional areas proves to the world that Israel accepted the Palestinian false story… what happened in Gaza will happen again; When Israel withdraws from the Palestinian Authority's areas, Hamas members will come out of their burrows and do a military coup…and what we will get is a failed and hostile entity; failed in economic terms and hostile to Israel…what will we do then? Will we hide and invent a spiritual cover to protect us from the Iranian presence which resides on the mountains of Samaria!?”.

He added:' Palestina (not Palestine) is the name Romans gave to the country to erase the name of Judea...if the Palestinians want peace, they should first recognize Israel as the home of Jewish people. 

Haim Shine wrote an opinion aricle under the title “ Settlers achieve the Zionist dream”  in ‘Israel Today’ newspaper on march 10, in which he praised the settlers and the settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian Territory claiming: “residents of Judea and Samaria achieve the vision of a return to Zion...nowadaysæ Ariel, Beit El and Shilo are the ones who are making our great dream comes true ...The dream of returning home to the historical home...We did not take the land of strangers or initiate war but it was imposed on us... We knew that we were fighting on the land of our fathers...fathers of the nation who dreamed for 2000 years of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nablus and Hebron... Never dreamed of Tel Aviv... Settlers of today are the new ‘Beloyem’ (name of a Zionist organization which means the return and settlements in the Land of Israel)...settlement activities continue their way to Jerusalem despite of the obstacles.

Yosef Kendelker wrote on the NFC website an incitement article titled “ Bedouins are invading Israel” on March 10,  against Bedouins in al-Naqab (the Negev ) desert, in which he accused  them of taking over the state lands and of being involved in illegal acts, claiming:” invasion of land became a serious blow to the state... Seizure of public lands is done easily; while authorities are not imposing the law...which is a disturbing phenomenon”.

He added:' one of the economic motives to seizing lands is getting compensations from the state...the most important issue is the illegal and unregulated building carried out by Bedouins...since the first days of the state... David Ben-Gurion talked about the need of settlements in the Negev, but who actually achieved that are the Bedouins”.

The Israeli media systematically incites against Arabs, through presenting them as a group of invaders; taking over Israel's lands illegally. 

Part of the ongoing incitement campaign against Arab citizens in Israel, Dror Edar wrote in ‘Israel today’ newspaper on March 11, an article called “Woe to the Arabs of Israel, who follow those” in which he portrayed them as an inner enemy that causes an existential danger to the State of Israel, claiming: 'Jews in Germany did not attempt to fight the state, dismantle its national character, communicate with its enemies or called on cancelling peace agreement that Germany held with former enemies, they behaved as German nationalist… Part of them converted to Christianity which is a disgrace, and the other part adhered to Judaism, however it was loyal to the German state of Christian character…they joined the army and took part in the battles of liberating Germany of the French occupation despite of the presence of a greater number of Jews on the other side which they were fighting'.

He added:” Based on this information, a comparison of the status of Israeli Arabs with the Jews of Germany is shameful…no one asked the Arabs of Israel to cancel their religious identity or prevented them from expressing their opinions even the most provocative…they enjoy a freedom that no other Arabs enjoys in the cities of the area…they join parties that demand to change the character of the state with no one preventing them”.

He also said:” Ahmed Tibi’s speech that he delivered in the presence of the Libyan President, Muammar Gaddaf, it seems very silly; he asked Gaddafi to lead the required change in the Arab world in terms of socio-political and educational…Gaddafi? He is suitable to them!…a Week before, the Journalist, Zuhair Andraos, from the assembly party called on cancelling the peace agreement with Egypt and Jordan, he claimed that the agreement is shameful because it bans Egypt from entering the army to Sinai, and so Washington and Tel Aviv (Be aware there is no mentioning of Jerusalem) succeeded in removing the biggest Arab state from the resistance circle…woe woe woe…woe to the Arabs of Israel who follow those… Woe to the Israeli left who considered those their allies…woe to us all”.

T.R./F.R.