Keeping It Israel

Israel and the Palestinians, Itamar Marcus - Palestinian Media Watch

July 22, 2020 Jeff Futers Season 1 Episode 15
Keeping It Israel
Israel and the Palestinians, Itamar Marcus - Palestinian Media Watch
Show Notes Transcript

Host Jeff Futers interviews Itamar Marcus, the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), Jerusalem Israel. Find out about the work of PMW and learn the truth about the Palestinian agenda. See and hear examples of how Palestinian leadership are poisoning the minds of their young people towards Israelis and Jews in particular. Last, learn what you can do to help educate others towards a better understanding of this complex situation.

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Unknown Speaker :

Welcome to the Keeping it Israel podcast with Jeff Futers, where Jeff and his guests talk. Everything Israel as it relates to Christian faith and the church. If you are a Christian and you stand with Israel, you will be encouraged and challenged by this podcast. And if you're not so sure about the whole Israel thing, you need to learn how your faith connects with Israel, and why standing with Israel matters. Now, here's Jeff with today's guests.

Jeff Futers :

My name is Jeff and I'll be your host today. Thanks for tuning in to the podcast. My guest today is Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch. And he's going to share with us some of the hard truth about what is happening between Israel and the Palestinians. And also some of the terrible brainwashing that is going on by Palestinian leaders of their young people and their children. This may be a little alarming to you. But I believe it will be eye opening. I want to point out here at the beginning that we are in no way trying to cast a negative aspersion on the Palestinians. Many of the Palestinians are victims themselves. And so we really are just interested in sharing truth. And so let's listen in to Itamar Marcus. Well, thank you for joining us for the podcast today. And my guest today is Itamar Marcus and Itamar you are the head of Palestinian Media Watch what is Palestinian Media Watch?

Itamar Marcus :

We were founded really right after the Oslo Accords and our goal was to find out what the Palestinians were telling their people, what were they educating their people, what were they teaching their children. We wanted to know if there was a sincere peace process going on. And to this end, we literally over 20 years, we've been studying everything that we could About the Palestinian Authority from the open sources we study, we follow all their TV, we read their newspapers, we we study their their schoolbooks. And when I say we follow everything we study their sports pages, their cultural pages, their music, videos, everything about them in order to get a real sense of what's happening in the PA world. And what we've learned is there are two completely different messages there is the message they give to their own people through everything through culture, sports, school books, and that's completely different than the message that they're giving the international community. Now, let's give you an interesting example. So I made some examples from Sports because people say, you know, why are you reading these sports pages? What What can you find here? Well, I'll give you some examples of how city authority uses sports in order to role model for their young people and their their students and their children. by naming sporting events after the terrorists who those who really murdered the largest number of Israelis, we have, just last year we had a karate tournament for young women named after a Palestinian female terrorists, Dalal Mughrabi who led a bus hijacking, in which 12 children were murdered. And in addition to 25 adults, it was the worst attack in Israel's history. 37 people murdered, led by Dalal Mughrabi, and then there was a karate tournament named for her. Just a few months before then, the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education sponsored an entire Sports Festival named after this killer and and all the girls we... have the picture. All the girls who are participating in the sports festival actually wore a uniform for the entire festival. They had a picture of this killer, this picture of this mass murderer of children on it. So sports is used as a way to role model, we have dozens of these examples every year of sporting events named after terrorists. On the other end, they prohibit peaceful, sporting events between Israelis and Palestinian youth. In fact, Palestinian adults as well, there have been, there have been a few sporting events that actually happened under the radar. And then we see Palestinian Authority leadership, ripping into the people who are involved in good peace building. And in fact, saying that they want to put them on trial for treason. There was one case where a Palestinian boy was interviewed, a newspaper said that he learned from one day of sports with Israelis, that it's better to have peace and war and he doesn't want to have war anymore. And in response to this event, there were members of the Palestinian Authority olympic committee who called for the arrest of the organizers. So, peace building through sports is prohibited by glorifying terrorists through sport. And this is a real tragedy because we know the impact that sports can have on children on youth and adults. And this is a, unfortunately an indicator of how important it is to follow everything that's going on in the Palestinian world to find out the the goals and the ideologies and what the leadership really wants for their people.

Jeff Futers :

Incredible. So you've given a great example and partially answered the next question, but I know there are many, many other examples as well. You know, what...the work that you're doing, why is that so important that we get this message out?

Itamar Marcus :

This This work is critical because the international community and to a certain extent, even the Israeli leadership was not aware. Until we started studying their schoolbooks studying them it was not aware that the whole so called peace process was a was a fraud. We started reporting on this in the late 1990s. We started in 1996. And, and I remember the, the media was responding to us and saying, well, there's a peace process going on. Now it doesn't matter what they're saying it doesn't matter what they're doing. And we were saying no, listen to what they're saying, Listen to what they're teaching the children listen to what they're writing in the school books. There is no peace process going on. There's a hate process going on. There's a terror process going on. And tragically, Israelis only learned through the in 2000 when the Palestinian Authority launched its terror war, its four year terror war, in which we lost over 1000 killed, tens of thousands injured. And it was all because we were literally suckered into believing that there was serious peace process going on. We never fought the Palestinian Authority in 2000, 2001, We never fought them properly because we we somehow believed their myth and their lie that... that is the leadership did... that this was a spontaneous terror coming from the bottom. In fact, we PMW Palestinian Media Watch is arguing all the time that we had all the proof that the Palestinian leadership was behind it. And eventually, eventually the Palestinian leadership after it was over, they admitted to it. We have films of all their leaders saying admitting that they were responsible for all these murders. Mahmoud Abbas, he is the leader today he is the one who the world sees as a leader. Well, that's what a boss should be serving multiple life sentences for murder. And I'll tell you why. Because he was he was actually the Prime Minister part of the time of this intifada, what they call intifada the terror war, when he was interviewed in 2005 after it ended. At this point, he was a so called president of the Palestinian Authority. He went on TV and said all the prisoners have to be released all the Palestinian prisoners who were in Israeli jails. And what was his reason? Because he said, we, we, we the Palestinian Authority sent them. So you have mass murderers in jail. He wants them free because we sent them well, if you sent them, Muhammad Abbas, you should be serving life sentences as well. In fact, hundreds of life sentences because you're responsible for those murders, unfortunately, the world decided to make a blind decision that because he's added the PA, he's a peace partner. And he has been lying to the international community and to Israeli leadership and to everybody ever since and we catch his lies all the time.

Jeff Futers :

Wow. It's interesting, you know, to listen to you talk because when you when you watch what's being shown in the media here in North America, Often Israel gets painted as the you know, the the bad country the aggressor. How would you characterize Israel's relationship with Palestine in general?

Itamar Marcus :

I'd say Israel has done more good for the Palestinian Authority than anyone else in history. Let's go to the period before the Palestinian Authority of pre 1993 and the Oslo Accords. Israel, saw the Palestinians as our neighbors, we wanted to help improve their lives. We wanted to, we had open borders, from 1967 when Judea and Samaria came under Israeli rule with all of the Arab population that was there. Everything that happened to them was only growth and prosperity. For example, healthcare, life expectancy when we, Israel took over in 97 life expectancy for Arabs. There was 47. When Israel gave it over to the PA we had raised it up to 73. In a few years after we took over the land, their economy was the fourth fastest growing economy in the world. That is the residents of Judea and Samaria, the West Bank fourth fastest... Why? Because Israel was giving them all the latest technology, drip agriculture, everything that we had that was helping us thrive economically, we were giving, giving to them. When when we took over the West Bank. Less than 10% of Palestinians had, running water in their homes and electricity and gas. And when we gave it over, it was over 80%. So Israel was just a good neighbor. Yeah. And then we signed an accords with Yasser Arafat and the PLO, under the mistaken assumption that they would then take all this goodwill that had been built up over the years. And that would be translated into a peaceful, some kind of a peaceful entity next to us. There, right after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, there were polls that were taken by the most important Palestinian pollster, his name is Khalil Shikaki. And these polls indicate that everything I was I just described to you what all the good that Israel did for the local population was recognized. Let me just tell you what these polls were in 1996 through 2000, this this pollster asked every year, he asked Palestinians to rate four places in the world in democracy and human rights. Now basically, he wanted to know how they rated Palestinian democracy, but he did a comparison France, United States and Israel and the PA. So in 1996 now, that means 30 years after Israel took over Judea and Samaria and the Arab residents so 30 years of Israeli rule, Palestinians were asked to rate four places in democracy and human rights. Well, they gave their own leadership to be a 50% positive rating. 55% gave France a positive rating 65% gave United States a positive rating. And where was Israel? Israel was the best in the world Israel. 78% of Palestinians gave Israel a positive rating and democracy and human rights after 30 years of Israeli rule. This was 28% higher than they were giving their own leaders. Well, the next year, he did the same poll, and this confirmed it was 77%. The next year he did the same poll, and Israel was at 75% going down the next three years to 65%. But then again, so did the PA the PA was down at 22% positive. In other words, the longer that Palestinian population was under the Palestinian Authority, the worse their conditions were, the more they forgot Israel's good things that we did for them. This was down in just three years, four years. They went down from 70 to 60. It wasn't Israel! It was because of the PA. And like I said, the PA went down to 22% positive. So Israel just wanted to be a good neighbor. Like I say, we established, after all we also opened up all their universities, they had no universities that were started when Jordan ruled the area. Right, we opened up all their are other universities so so Israel, education, health, economics, infrastructure, Israel was an incredible neighbor we really established them. And in return, we signed with the Oslo Accords. And the tragedy was, is that we didn't just take local population and work out a deal with the local population. We signed with Yasser Arafat and the PLO terrorists. Who at that time, we're in Tunisia. They, we allowed them to come into the Palestinian areas and they immediately got control of education, of welfare of schoolbooks they start and all of a sudden, they started immediately started poisoning the minds of the Palestinian people. They started rewriting history. They started terror attacks. Within a few years, we started having suicide bombings that we never had before. The first suicide bombings were done by Hamas. But they wouldn't have been done without the Palestinian Authority permission. So we immediately immediately by starting a so called peace process, ended up having terror rising to the not just 10s and 15%, but many hundreds of percent more terror from a situation where we had isolated terror attacks, a number of terror attacks every year. We were having, eventually a number of terror attacks every day. And this was thanks to the so called peace process.

Jeff Futers :

And so the timing of that, you know, I remember I remember video of, you know when Gaza was turned back over to the Palestinian Authority and and seeing beautiful greenhouses and other things, bulldozed to the ground. That was all around this time of beginning a so called peace process?

Itamar Marcus :

Yeah. And I'll make one correction. You said you remember when Gaza was returned to the Palestinian Authority the Palestinian Authori...there was no such thing as a Palestinian Authority before the Oslo Accords, we weren't returning anything to them. We were giving. We were giving something to the Palestinians. We were accepting something that never existed before. there had never been a Palestinian nation, a Palestinian people, a Palestinian King, a Palestinian state, nothing had ever been Palestinian. The only Palestinians in the world actually had been the Jews. The Romans renamed the Judea in one in 125, 135 they renamed it Palestina. And from then on it was the Jews who were there who were Palestinians. The Palestinian Talmud was written in 500, 600 Common Era...The Palestinian Talmud. I assure you it wasn't Yasser Arafat's relatives who wrote it. And that was all through till the 20th century, there was the Palestine Pathos Organization, which was an Israeli It was it was a Jewish Zionist Organization in the 1980s. And there was the Palestinian Philharmonic and all of these were were Zionist Jewish structures that eventually turned into the Israeli state. So they dropped Palestine. The Jerusalem Post was originally the Palestine post Israeli ? was the Palestine...? So what happened was, it's like it's like if you had your driver's license, and you lost it and someone took your driver's license and decided to not only steal your name, but steal your identity and that's What's happened here with the with Yasser Arafat, we were the ones were known as Palestinians until we created the State of Israel. And Yasser Arafat to say, you know what, I have an idea. Let's take the name Palestine claim where the Palestinians, and then we can actually go back and take their whole history. And in fact, that is what he has done and going all the way back, even to Jesus, Jesus a Judean, a practicing Judean is now according to the Palestinian Authority a Palestinian, so everything Everything was stolen our history, people, famous, famous Jews, everybody have all been stolen, all because of the stealing of the name Palestinian.

Jeff Futers :

Yeah, thank you for correcting me. You are correct, giving, not returning and it's it's really there was a kind of a vacuum created when the Jewish state was created because now the identity was was coming pletely Jewish and and the identity was around Israel. And that left that term Palestinian just kind of out there for the taking. Right?

Itamar Marcus :

Exactly it was there was actually a discussion amongst before the state was created. And they were trying to decide what to name the new state. And some people actually said, let's name ourselves Judean, again, because we have gone through 2000 years now as Jews all through our history. And someone else said, No, let's call ourselves Palestinians because we're in the land and the land has been known as Palestine for all these years and the Jews remain here. We're known as Palestinians. So let's call it Palestine. Let's keep the name Palestine. And then the decision was made to actually... The third choice was to go back to Israel, because that was the very, very first name when the people were all united under one kingdom. And that was the correct choice. And the truth is, in retrospect, had they called it Israel-Palestine, it would have saved a lot of heartache, and a lot of lies and a lot of terror.

Jeff Futers :

Wow. Well, now you know I'm listening to you talk and I know that there's a lot of rhetoric in the world about sort of Israel Palestine relations but but you don't sound anti Palestinian to me You just sound like somebody who's interested in the truth and and allowing the truth to help help Israel make good decisions would that be a good characterization?

Itamar Marcus :

Absolutely. Not only ...we have it but started something very funny in recent years I lecture around the world I lecture in Parliament's also lecture on campuses. And what was happening was I was lecturing on campuses in the United States and and very often I would have Muslims come up to me afterward or even speak up during the lecture and and say that they're outraged at what the Palestinian Authority is doing to their people, they're outraged that they're brainwashing their children to want to kill and to want to be martyrs. And, and what's happened is we started keeping in touch with these Palestinians, with these Muslims. And now what's happened is that within Israel, we have had Palestinians turning to us. And we are now working with Palestinians who just want Palestinian Media Watch material to get more exposure, because they know they know that they will never have a decent future with the Palestinian leadership. They know it. They they desperately would prefer Israel to absorb all of them into the State of Israel. They look at Israeli Arabs, Israeli Arabs are all through the Israeli universities. Israeli Arabs are all through the economy right now. They're learning high tech they have they are the only ones in the Middle East to have democracy really...have a real democracy without artificial voting and some of these Muslim and Arab states, but the only ones that have real democracy are so they, they see this and they're jealous. Palestinians are seeing this and they're jealous. And all they want is for Israel to... So these Palestinians are working with us and I've actually one of one of these people who I'm close with joined me at a meeting with with European Members of Parliament, actually from the Netherlands. And I made a presentation I showed films from Palestinian TV, I showed of clips of Palestinian schoolbooks I showed what was happening to Palestinian children. And then and then he spoke and he first of all corroborated everything and he described that yes, I he was brought up on all these hate values by the PA and then he started going on telling about what it's like to be Palestinian and and how much they suffer under this leadership and they don't give them freedom of anything. One of them said To him, Well, maybe it would be better if you had an independent state. And he responded, oh, no, oh, no. That would be the worst thing. If we have an independent state with this leadership, we will never have freedom. We'll never have democracy, we'll never have rights. We'll never have anything. And they said, What do you want is I want Israel to take us over somehow. And then they said to him, Well, Israel can't take you over because, look, you just saw the way all the youth have been brought up. And he said, Yes, I don't blame Israel, for not accepting us and giving us citizenship because we've all been poisoned. So it was a fascinating, fascinating exchange. And we're trying to create some kind of it's hard to find these people and I'll tell you why. Because even he is afraid to find out the original the actual opinions of his neighbors and friends, because people who have moderate opinions who really want peace with Israel, who blame the PA for all their people suffering Those people end up in jail and be tortured. So he doesn't want to end up that way. So he can't even though it's Palestinians who want peace with Israel are quietly having meetings with Israelis, but they can't publicly start a movement, because that would be the end of their lives, certainly the end of their freedom.

Jeff Futers :

Wow. Well, and that confirms, I think, something that that I've always suspected, and and I've heard different times is that is that Palestinians if they really truly want peace, would actually be in danger from the hands of their own government,

Itamar Marcus :

Yes they are and the number of a lot of them are speaking out publicly. In recent times, and like I said, there are many, many more, who are afraid to speak out publicly is the many 10% 20% 30% 50% 80%? That we don't know, because they're afraid to speak out. They have to follow. They have to follow the PA line. We do know, for example, that when Palestinians are asked in polls about Palestinian corruption, Palestinian Authority corruption, 80% say that they're corrupt. We know that 65 we're talking about the same numbers for a couple of years now. That the PA has corruption about 65% are constantly saying that they want Mahmoud Abbas to resign from being head of the Palestinian Authority and to hold elections. He was elected. He was elected in 2006 for a five year term. And he hasn't allowed elections ever since then. So there's no democracy, there's no freedom, there's no freedom of expression. There's no freedom of media. So Palestinians are suffering. And and, and because they suffer, the PA has to keep poisoning and blame the suffering on Israel. There's something else that they do in order to get support for the hatred. They try to package Islam in a way that it is very, very anti semitic. And they are constantly quoting Islamic sources that literally call for hatred of Jews, fighting Jews, destroying Israel. And I'm talking about the top of the PA leadership. We're talking about a person named Mahmoud Al-Habash, who is the Palestinian Authority. Right now the head of the Sharia courts appointed by Abbas, he used to be his advisor whose personal advisor on Islam. And just a few weeks ago, a few months ago, he went on TV, and he said, he started off with a quote from the Quran, it says, to kill them. And he said, Who should it be killing those that we should be killing the transgressors? And then he says, Who are the transgressors and he lists 10...10 violations, which are capital crimes, according to him and he said, if somebody attacks, your home, your land, your homeland, Your Honor. And he goes on 10 different things. Now, all of these things, the PA has been accusing Israelis of doing. They say when Jews pray on the Temple Mount we're attacking their honor. So he is and he's saying, that's a capital crime. And then he says, You are obligated by the Quran to fight them. And he ended you're allowed to kill them. So this is the top religious figure in the PA appointed by Mahmoud Abbas just a few months ago, essentially saying every Israeli as you have an obligation to fight and you're allowed to kill. The PA says that every bit of Israel from from Metula to Eilat, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, every bit of Israel is said to be the Palestinian homeland. They don't deny this. That's the only map that they use. They teach it in their schoolbooks, they teach it on TV, and what is this guy come this top leader says if they attack your homeland, if they...you have a right, you have an obligation to fight and the right to kill meaning anytime a Palestinian kills an Israeli in fulfilling a religious requirement. And by the way, it's not just theory. Let me just tell you a really a very pointed example of this. A Palestinian terrorist a year and a half ago I think it was went to his workplace which was north of Jerusalem which had Arabs and Israelis working together. And because even there are thousands who were working together in the same area. And there had never been a terror attack there. I think security was was lax and people could just come in so he brought a machine gun with him, he brought an AK... AK[47]. And he had an automatic rifle. And he went to two of his colleagues, young woman who had a three year old child, a man was father of three and just murdered them. The woman he actually tied up said she would literally he literally executed her after he tied her up. Now, this this terrorist, Ashraf Na'alwa. He then escaped and he was actually free for about two months before Israel tracked him down and killed him while trying to arrest him. But a month and a half after he was arrested Fatah which is the party of Mahmoud Abbas on their Facebook page wrote the following Ashraf Na'alwa, Allah is protecting you. In other words, he hadn't been caught because Allah was protecting him. In other words, Fatah is saying that walking into a workplace and killing a young woman in her 20s a mother of a three three month old and a young man, father of three is something that Allah wants is something that Islam wants. So what we're seeing is the PA is giving these messages to their people about...the Authority, the moderates..I'm not talking about Hamas, I'm talking about the ones who are supposed to be our peace partners. They give the message to the top religious figure. He goes on TV and says you have a right. You have an obligation to fight them, and you're allowed to kill them. And then the guy who goes and kills them in cold blood two civilians, two young people, they then say, Allah is protecting you, meaning, yes, this is exactly what Allah wants of Palestinians.

Jeff Futers :

Incredible. Now, you mentioned that was on their Facebook page, and this is one of the things

Itamar Marcus :

The official Facebook page of Fatah, Yes,

Jeff Futers :

this is one of the things that you do you root out in media and and other sources, you know, where some of these things are happening. Give us some other examples of the poisoning of the minds of this young generation that you've been talking about.

Itamar Marcus :

So one of the the the Palestinian leadership is constantly giving messages to the children to fight Israelis, to kill them, and even to kill themselves. I'm going to show you an example. Some examples of these videos that have appeared from either official Palestinian TV or on Fox Facebook page. So this is the moderate...I want you to see these messages?

Jeff Futers :

Okay.

Girl on Video :

[Translation] His mother promised him a gift if he finished his food. The boy wondered in excitement, “Is it a toy?” Hi mother approached him with a glowing look while carrying the gift. He looked and it was a rifle! He shouted loudly: Oh Mommy, mommy! What is this? Is this the gift? She picked him up, hugged him and said: My son, we were not created for happiness. In my eyes, you are meant for Martyrdom! Jerusalem is ours, our weapon is Islam, And our ammunition is our children

Jeff Futers :

Wow.

Itamar Marcus :

This this Fatah chose to put on their Facebook page and originally was a radio broadcast but they got the video. They thought this was an important message to give to Palestinian people to Palestinian youth on Facebook. There can be no greater child abuse than to come to a child and say to him that you have no inherent value in and of yourself. You are ammunition. Your weapon is Islam and you are ammunition. And this is the party of Mahmoud Abbas. Again, horrific, horrific message. We get messages of promoting martyrdom for children all the time, all the time... on children's programs on Palestinian television. I'll give you another example of one of those.

Jeff Futers :

Ye ah. That's just horrible.

2nd Girl on Video :

[Translation] The Dark-Eyed [Virgins] Year for Me – Girl recites poem on PA TV Children’s Program Nov2019 I am the Palestinian lion cub…The blood of the Martyrs flows in my veins If the drums of war call, I harvest the souls in the fields My sword is drawn and won’t return to the sheath The armies of treachery fear me and the Dark-Eyed [virgins] yearn for me I have not sold my homelands, and have not given up my assault rifle Today I carry my shrouds, and in my heart my faith strengthens Because victory and liberation are coming at the hands of the lion cubs (Broadcast on World Children’s Day, Nov 20, 2019)

Jeff Futers :

Wow.

Itamar Marcus :

Again, it's just not imaginable that these are the messages that are coming on children's programs and she says bravo bravo and this has been going on for years. Otherwise, what are the results of this? The results of this is that young Palestinians teenagers are very, very much involved in the terror that's going on. Last year, we had a case two...I think they were 14 year old boys or 15 year old boys walked into the and, and this was caught on camera. So it was very striking. They walked into the Old City of Jerusalem and saw some Israeli soldiers were there and they both took out knives and ran over and started stabbing the Israeli soldiers one was shot and killed on the spot, and the other one was shot and injured was taken off to the hospital. 15 year old boys a few years before, it was a 15 year old boy that went into the home of a Israeli woman named Dafna Meir. And in front of her children, she has six children. He just stabbed her to death. He just repeatedly stabbed her while she was screaming and begging for her life. This 16 year... 15 year old boy. Now I can't imagine a 15 year old normal 15 year old boy even seeing a dead animal and coming and placing a knife in it over and over again. It's just not something that no. And yet he was able to do this to a live human being, to a woman with her children. They're crying and she's begging. So this is the poisoning. This is the brainwashing of Palestinian children. And the Palestinian children are victims as well, those 14 year old boys who attacked in the Old City, the one who was killed, he had been brainwashed by his own leaders. When when I see Members of Parliament around the world, they say, you know, the Palestinian children are suffering. They're victims, I say, of course, they're victims, but who has been victimizing them? Right? It's not been Israel. It's been their own leaders who've told them that they are ammunition for Islam in order to go and kill Israelis and be killed doing it. And those are the people who should be punished.

Jeff Futers :

Agreed. Agreed. That is just it's just horrible to think that That children could be used in this way. You know, we, we have seen evidence of families, children being used as human shields in terms of, you know, where missile installations are put and some of those kind of things. But this this really is is even more insidious than that in many ways, isn't it? It's it's actually it's arming, arming them essentially with with the hatred to, you know, to carry out these kind of things. It's absolutely heinous. It really is.

Itamar Marcus :

You know, during the first few months of the Covid 19 crisis around the world. Israel did everything that we could to make sure that this didn't reach the Palestinian areas. And Israel was sending hundreds of tons, literally hundreds of tons of supplies, medical supplies, we were having special training sessions for Palestinian doctors, we were sending them tests. We were sending them and we were doing everything, everything for them on a daily basis. And while this was happening, we were seeing that Palestinian press was telling their people that Israel was doing everything that it could in order to spread the Coronavirus. So here, we were helping them preventing it and they were up. They didn't mention anything good that we did. They didn't mention anything good. And I'll give you an example here of a cartoon, a cartoon that appeared in the official Palestinian newspaper, which is indicative of this incredible libel that was being spread by the Palestinian Authority. Yeah, so this came in you see here, ????? this is the official newspaper of the Palestinian Authority. And we had statements by the government spokesman saying that Israelis were throwing syringes with with Corona virus in Palestinian areas that we were spitting on the ATM machines that we were spitting on car doors and on doors of homes. It was 100% libelous, 100% libelous...So you had two different things happening at the same time. Israel was helping the Palestinians already spending 10s of millions of shekels to send them all this incredible equipment to help them out. And everyday everyday their their people were being filled with these lies. So why would you not expect a 14 year old then to go out and stab an Israeli soldier? He's been a victim he's a victim of this poison that the Palestinian Authority has been giving them as you see here in this picture.

Jeff Futers :

Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Now, this is, I think going to help a lot of people you know, place in their minds a proper idea of what really is happening between Israel and the Palestinians. And and I say, between Israel and the Palestinians. I know for a fact I've been there many times. Israel is not an aggressor in any of this. Israel is is a defender of themselves and their security. But what about, what about pay for murder? This is something that's extremely troubling. And, you know, we hear little bits and pieces of this, but I remember when we spoke with you, you're so ago. There's just so much evidence of this happening

Itamar Marcus :

Yes, I'm going to show you some slides while I speak. Yes, the Palestinian Authority literally pays their terrorists after they're arrested literally pays them for their murders. According to Palestinian Authority law Every terrorist who is arrested and goes to jail from the first day that they're arrested, they start getting a salary and the salary goes up. The longer they're in jail, the higher their salary is. So you have people who are murderers, who, whose salary keeps going up after many years and they can reach up to 12,000 shekels a month, which is about close to 4000 US dollars a month, which is about four times the average Palestinian salary four times not 4% 400% higher than the average salary just because they went to jail and I'll give you an example here. Abdallah Barghouti was a Hamas terrorist. He built the bombs that blew up in the Sbarro restaurant murdering 15 people, Zion Square, Cafe Moment, Sheffield Club, all these...Hebrew University which also killed Americans, Sbarro by the way, also killed Americans, bus bombing in Tel Aviv altogether he murdered 67 people and he is serving 67 life sentences. These are the pictures of some of the murdered here you see a little infant, civilians, men, women, children, everybody. 67 people. How did the PA respond? This is how they responded. They started giving him a salary and he's already received over 200,000 US dollars. And it's not just terrorists who kill from afar. You've also got you also have terrorists like two cousins Amjad and Hakim Awad. They went into the home of the Fogel family, and with their knives, they murdered Ruth Fogel and Ehud Fogel, and then they literally slit the throats and murdered these four children. An 11 year old, a four year old and a three month old. This is how unbelievably cruel they were. And as soon as they were arrested, they started receiving salary and today it's actually a little higher by now. they've received already over $150,000 and by the way, they're giving out they're giving out hundreds of millions of dollars a year to terrorists the Palestinian Authority is. And at the same time, they're getting hundreds of millions of dollars and even more in financial aid from European countries. The United States only in recent years, decided to stop funding because of this because of this they had to say stop, but all through the period of the Obama administration, even though we told everybody in government what was happening, they continued to fund the Palestinian Authority. Under under, under President Trump, this was stopped. In Congress, by the way, the Congress and Senate both passed a law first so it was not even a Trump initiative. This is a congressional initiative. It's called the Taylor Force Act, named after an American Taylor Force who was murdered in Tel Aviv. He was an American Veteran, an army officer was visiting with his university school to Tel Aviv...and he was stabbed to death. The Palestinian Authority, of course, turned the murderer into a hero. The murderer was killed on the spot. He was turned into a hero and his parents started receiving a lifetime, literally a lifetime monthly payment, because their son had died murdering, murdering Taylor Force. So this is the Palestinian Authority, their messages, their payments, there is no reason in the world to see them as anything other than a terror organization.

Jeff Futers :

Wow. Now what, sorry, what do you think another country would do? If there were, you know, constant targeted attempts on the lives of their citizens? How would another country take that? Would it not be considered an act of war?

Itamar Marcus :

Of course, every country considers it an act of war. In fact, I'll tell you something very interesting. Just a few days ago, I gave a Zoom lecture to members of European Parliament. And I presented a new report that Palestinian media watch just released, which is called Two loopholes in European Union, Anti Terror Funding Laws. And what we did is we showed them I showed them in this presentation that the things that the Palestinian Authority are doing are actually criminal. In Europe, if if a terrorist would be glorified in Europe, according to European Union law, the terrorists would have to be arrested. Now, the Palestinian Authority glorifies every single terrorist, rewards every single terrorist, promotes finances, all of this. And Europe is giving them money while they're doing it. And I said to them, I said if if Mahmoud Abbas would travel to Europe, and he would say these things there or do these things there, you'd have to arrest him. He's not a head of state...no state, he has no immunity, you would literally have to arrest him. But he's doing it here and you're paying him to do it. How could that be? And I said, Don't. Don't civilians around the world deserve the same protection that the civilians of the European Union, you made these laws criminalizing terror promotion and terror glorification. You criminalize these, because you want it to give your civilians protection. Why don't we Israelis deserve the same protection our civilians, and the members of parliament who were listening were very, very receptive, very agreeable. And we're hoping we're hoping that there'll be amendments to European Union laws, because the situation today is unimaginable. And to answer your question, you said what would happen if they were doing these things in their country, like they would be right away, put in jail, and it was in a neighboring country? They would be it would be attacked and defeated?

Jeff Futers :

Yeah. I asked the same question, you know, in the last couple of years, as these, you know, quote, unquote, peaceful protests have been happening, you know, on the Gaza border and, you know, worldwide news attention. And yet the news that that gets heard here in North America is news about, you know, an Israeli soldier shooting somebody trying to breach the fence, not about the the absolute bedlam that is going on, you know, in these peaceful, quote unquote protests.

Itamar Marcus :

Yeah well they they discovered the Palestine authority have initiated so many different terror methods. And in Gaza, one of the terror methods that they initiated is they literally started putting bombs, as well as incendiary devices, and molotov cocktails on balloons. And the wind was going and the wind generally goes from the sea inward. So the wind was always taking these things. So every Friday and even during the week, they were sending in... I think it was 25% of the national parks in the area of Gaza, were burnt down to the ground, 25% national parks, beautiful, beautiful places of nature and where people would hike and they burnt them down. This is and did you hear a complaint or criticism from any Palestinian? Absent...

Jeff Futers :

Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. Well, why is it and maybe we'll we'll sort of start to wrap up the conversation here. But why is it that you know, we don't hear a lot about these things in the media, both the good that Israel is doing for the Palestinians, and the the bad that the Palestinians are doing towards Israel? Why aren't we hearing about this in North America?

Itamar Marcus :

Unfortunately, many journalists have an agenda. And that's first of all, but also many journalists go on momentum. In other words, if one journalist has only been promoting this, this misinformation of Israel being the the bad one the Palestinians being innocent victims, then that some anyone else is coming on to staff that's the message that they're that the the TV station that the newspaper is expecting. That's what they want to hear. So then goes on momentum I have had a good success with one on one meetings with journalists. But it's a drop in the bucket considering, you know, compared to the hundreds of journalists who are here in Israel, and we try to convince them that they're missing, they're missing the story. And like I say, many of them do then write, change the story. But then they leave and the... the next journalist is coming and he already in his mind is convinced of the message he has to prove he has to prove bad things about Israel and he has to prove good things about Palestinians and they come in with this so you see you've got to literally be constantly tracking down all the new journalists and then they wonder how come I never heard this before. Maybe it's not true. So this is what we're dealing with...this is what we're dealing with and it is tragic, it is unfortunate there are certain there is certain media which gives a more much more balanced picture. And, and there's no balance here that presents I should call it, you know, presents the Israeli side, accurately and the Palestinian side accurately. But unfortunately, they're few and far between.

Jeff Futers :

Yeah. Now, you know, our audience is, would be primarily Christian and, you know, Christians in general, not all but in general Christians would be supportive of Israel of the idea of Zionism and Israel's right to statehood and all of those things. So two things one, what are some good media outlets that Christians could sort of connect into that will give them you know, solid news about what's happening in Israel and between Israel and Palestine? That's the first one.

Itamar Marcus :

Yeah, I think the best station is I'm trying to remember. I think it's called CNN, not CNN CBN can I answer that right?

Jeff Futers :

Is that the Christian Broadcasting Network? ...Yeah.

Itamar Marcus :

Yeah CBN they interview PMW regularly they they, they do our stories regularly. The second thing that I could I could really recommend to to your to your listeners and to your viewers is that they should come to our website Our website is Palwatch.org and first thing they should do is subscribe to get our to get our bulletins. Look for material on the website. It's very easy to...it's got a great search engine you can put in the tags and put in any combination of messages that you want to find you could put in children, Fatah, hatred, and you'll get all the examples that we've collected over the years. But most important is get on our email lists that you can get our press releases. Because what we have found is that people can impact on the media. We have a number of places where there are people who have organized. And if there's a bad story in the media, that about Israel, they will together in an organized fashion, they will bombard that media station with emails, showing them the true facts, showing them the films like the ones I showed you showing them what's really happening. You know, someone will come along and say, Mahmoud Abbas is promoting peace. Well, they'll show them and and they've been changes. They've been changes and apologies in stories. So I asked all of your viewers to go to palwatch. org, get our bulletins and then become active, active in promoting truth around your region. You could theoretically write to us and even ask for a copy of my PowerPoint presentation that I present to journalists I will send you a copy of my PowerPoint presentation. You can then ... you can have meetings with the journalist and you walk in and say, Listen, I think you've been missing an important part of the story. I want to show you important information, you'll have all the videos, you have all the information, you can go ahead and do it. This is what we like people to do to become more active. We want PMWs material to be out there to be a tool for people who are wanting to spread the truth. spread the truth. And like I said, go to our website, write to us, we'll send you copies of the full presentation of which you've seen just a few slides today.

Jeff Futers :

Yeah, and so you answered my second question, which is, you know, how can how can Christians help their friends to understand these issues and I think you've just given some great information about that. I'll include, you know that information in the in the write up below the video, but also, you know, on the closer of the audio, podcast, and so, I just want to say thank you so much for your time today. We had a little bit of time lapse getting this all set up but glad you got your computer fixed and everything's working.

Itamar Marcus :

I don't, I don't...I'm on a different computer.

Jeff Futers :

Oh, you're on a different computer. Oh, no,

Itamar Marcus :

It kept crashing again and again again and finally had to...I'm waiting. I'm waiting. Yeah, yeah.

Jeff Futers :

Well, anyhow, I really appreciate you taking the time. I thank you for your work as well. It's extremely important work that you're doing. And, you know, as as a Christian, you know, my my way to support you one way is to pray that you know that that God will continue to bless you in your work and I know that others will be doing that as well. So thanks so much and have a fantastic day.

Itamar Marcus :

Thank you very much and all the listeners as well.

Jeff Futers :

Evening right. It's evening there.

Itamar Marcus :

It's evening in Israel. Yes.

Jeff Futers :

Well let you go have your dinner. All right. God bless Shabbat shalom.

Itamar Marcus :

Shabbat Shalom...bye.

Jeff Futers :

Thank you for tuning in to the podcast today. It has been great to have you with us and I hope you enjoyed my interview with Itamar. We heard and learned a lot of information today about what is happening in the media, when it comes to the Palestinian Authority and the message that they are trying to send the world. It is twisted, it is false. It is unfair in most cases. And so I want to encourage you get involved. Itamar suggested that we subscribe to their website to their email updates and that when we see unfairness when we see information that's being reported inaccurately that we should do something about that and I would encourage you go to their website, palwatch.org that is palwatch.org and there you can subscribe to their email updates and get all the information that you need and we would encourage you to do that. I remind you also that First Century Foundations is a ministry that is helping over 70 Christian and men seanna ministries in the land of Israel, we are helping to support them as they reach out to their communities with humanitarian aid with all kinds of help for Holocaust survivors and lone soldiers and many others who are in need in the land of Israel. This is a way for you to make your donations go to work in Israel, and help people come to know the truth about Yeshua who is the Messiah. So I would encourage you, if you can help us, please make your donation at firstcenturyfoundations.com/donate. That's firstcenturyfoundations.com/donate and it would just be so helpful to us. We appreciate you tuning in and listening every week. God bless you and remember, as Christians, we stand with Israel.