Ariel Center for
Policy Research
A JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND THE ARTS
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A JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND THE ARTS |
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NATIV ■ Volume Eleven ■ Number 6 (65) ■ November 1998 ■ Ariel Center for Policy Research |
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SYNOPSIS |
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The Oslo agreements were aimed, from the moment they were signed to end all acts of hostility, both physical and verbal, between Israel and the Palestinians. It was clearly understood that the Palestinians would not only stop all acts of violence against Israel but would change the tone of their propaganda, and endeavor to disseminate messages of peace and good neighborliness. The Israeli public was made to believe that similar to Israel, the Palestinian Authority would develop special educational programs for the schools to educate the young generation in the spirit of peace, and prepare it to live in a new era of no-war, just as Israel had been doing for years. It was also hoped that the anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic line of propaganda, common in the Palestinian press (and other sources of information), would at least be tempered if not completely changed. It was hoped that on the official level the notorious symbols of the hatred for Israel, in the official documentation of the PLO would be modified, notwithstanding the Palestinian Covenant and the FATEH Charter.
In reality none of these hopes were realized. After the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip and the "West Bank" the terrorist actions against Israeli citizens were intensified. Stealing Israeli vehicles became a national sport, the PA did nothing to change the atmosphere of hatred among the Palestinians. On the contrary, the language of hatred, the incitement for war against the Jews, the belligerent speeches - the books in schools, the ideology of negating Israel's existence and the Jewish right to a homeland, remained the same as they had been even before World War II. All of this has been advanced through the media.
This article was published in English in the ACPR's
Policy Paper No. 57,
in the book |