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Palestinian sermon: `We shall yet
return' to 1948 borders
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
Jpost, 1/3/05
After a respite of several weeks, Palestinian media incitement against
Israel has resumed in full force, with calls for the destruction of the
State of Israel again being broadcast on state-run Palestinian Television,
a Jerusalem-based Palestinian media watch-group said Sunday.
A Palestinian sermon broadcast Friday on Palestinian Television called for
a return to the pre-state 1948 borders; and warned America against mov-ing
its embassy to Jerusalem in the future.
"We say no to a return to 1967 borders... we are interested in returning
to the true borders of out country, we want to go back to the 1948
borders... and we shall yet return to them," went the Friday sermon read
out by Ibrahim Mudayris, according to a translation of the Arabic released
Sunday by the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Media Watch.
The weekly televised Palestinian sermon went on to warn America against
moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a move mandated by the US
Congress, warning that it will be "the last nail in America's coffin."
"By the life of Allah, America will be buried on the day her embassy is
moved to Jerusalem," the sermon contin-ued.
The Palestinian preacher reading the sermon, who heads the Association of
Learn-ing the Koran, is on a salaried position at the Palestinian Ministry
for Religious Affairs, said Itamar Marcus, the Israeli Director of
Palestinian Media Watch.
Marcus added that the Pales-tinian preacher in question - who has a long
history of incitement, including past calls for the extermination of the
Jewish people - had been off the air for several weeks after the death of
the late Palestin-ian leader Yasser Arafat in November, only to be back on
Palestinian TV for the past two weeks.
"Hatred on every level is out there in full force," Marcus said.
Last week, Palestinian Television also rebroadcast a call to genocide from
a Palestinian religious leader Dr. Hassan Khater, founder of the A1 Quds
Encyclopedia and a TV lecturer, the Palestinian Media Watch notes in a
post-Arafat Palestinian media incitement report to be published this week.
"Mohammed said in his Hadith: 'The Hour [Day of Res-urrection] will not
arrive until you fight the Jews, [until a Jew will hide behind a rock or
tree] and the rock and the tree will say: Oh Muslim, servant of Allah,
there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!"' the December 27 broadcast
said.
In November, the interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) met
with the head of the Palestinian Broadcasting Authority and asked him to
check all pro-grams aired on state television to prevent the broadcast of
inciting material.
But the move stopped short of an order to stop incitement in the
Palestinian media - a key Israeli demand - with Palestini-ans and Israelis
differing over what constitutes incitement.
Israel has deemed an end to incitement as a a sine qua non of its
relation-ship with the new Palestinian leadership.
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