Friday, October 25, 2013

Palestinian Youth Magazine Glorifies Hitler

 The cover of Zayzafuna magazine from February 2011




From The Clarion Project.




Palestinian Youth Magazine Glorifies Hitler


An educational magazine for youth associated with the Palestinian Authority (PA) published a witty list of sayings attributed to Adolf Hilter. The list was exposed by the Palestinain Media Watch (PMW).

Giving no introduction, the August 3013 issue of Zayzafuna magazine, whose advisory board includes the PA Deputy Minister of Education as well as the Head of the Media Department of the PA Ministry of Education, lists for its young viewers 10 pithy sayings attributed to Hitler.

As PMW comments, the purpose of the list appears to be “to present Hitler as a sharp-witted and wise person.” No introduction to Hitler was apparently necessary: As PMW notes, the magazine has previously glorified Hitler and portrayed him as a role model, publishing a glowing profile of Hitler for his dedication to humanity due to this effort to exterminate the Jewish people.

In that previous essay, Palestinian Media Watch reports, “Hitler says to a Palestinian girl in her dream, ‘I killed them [the Jews] so you would all know that they are a nation which spreads destruction all over the world.’ "

Although that essay caused UNESCO to withdraw its funding for the magazine, it still remains on the magazine’s website.

Ironically, in the current article, the sayings attributed to Hitler are the sayings of other people or well-known anonymous witticisms. They include: "Don't argue with a fool because people won't be able to tell you apart," and, "When the defeated smiles, he denies the winner the pleasure of victory."

PMW further exposes that Zayzafuna’s current issue continues the magazine’s tradition of glorifying death through martyrdom. Reprinting a poem it has published twice before (each time with a different title and attributed to a different child), the poem tells Palestinian youth that the ideal is to die for the cause and achieve shahada (martyrdom).

Published in the September 2013 issue and translated by PMW, the poem reads in part:

"If you go to your death without caring - then you're a Palestinian;
If your song is the song of Martyrdom (Shahada)
and death, for you, is birth - then you're a Palestinian!
If you love death... then you're a Palestinian"


"If you have saturated the tree of the homeland
with your free blood, with love,
and have offered the remnants of your bodily parts
as a bridge for those who are yet to come
- Then you're a Palestinian!"

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