RAMALLAH, March 3, 2016 (WAFA) – An Israeli NGO began collecting signatures in order to file a criminal complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) under the pretext of incitement against Israel.
According to the NGO Shurat HaDin, the complaint is going to be filed against the heads of the Corporation, Riad al-Hassan and Ahmed Assaf. It said in a video that supports the campaign, “Palestinian TV incites the murder of innocent Jews every single day.”
PBC’s spokesperson Majed Saed said the main problem is not the names, but the size of incitement practiced by Israel against the corporation.
Saed said, “We take such incitement and moves very seriously, especially that Israel will not halt efforts targeting the corporation.”
PBC believes it is being targeted for its role in exposing the truth that Israeli tries to hide and uncovering Israeli violations against Palestinians.
“The Palestine TV will continue to show the truth and we will not be deterred by such moves, whether through Israeli or international courts. We will hold Israel accountable for its crimes through the law and media.”
According to the online English-language news website The Jerusalem Post, Shurat HaDin claimed “Many of the terrorists launched their attacks after they watched programming which called very clearly for the killing of Jews.”
The NGO claimed Palestinian youths who carried out attacks against Israeli soldiers and settlers were encouraged by the TV, which calls for killing Jews.
Not its first complaint, Shurat HaDin took part in a lawsuit in New York against Internet giant Facebook in October 2015, claiming the company is “disregarding incitement and calls to murder Jews being posted by Palestinians.”
The campaign not only attempts to prosecute the Palestine TV and its heads, but appeal to the government of the United States, which funds the Palestinian Authority broadcasting.
Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, founder and head of Shurat HaDin, said "the current wave of “lone wolf attacks” is the product of televised propaganda."
"When establishment television brainwashes its viewers to murder Jews, they go and carry out these deeds. Once we used to go and arrest inciters at mosques, now we just need to go arrest the heads of Palestinian broadcasting.”
Head of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate Nasir Abu Baker said in a press statement that Israel must worry about being tried and not the opposite, because the PA is determined to try Israeli forces for their crimes against journalists and media institutions.
He said the PA has already filed a complaint to the ICC on the violations against the PBC.
M.H
