Hamas TV Prepares For Intifada III

Some Hamas leaders have been speaking in Arabic of "a coming stage" against Israel. Many Middle East analysts are also discussing a possibility of an "Intifada III." Unlike the first two "uprisings," the Palestinian Arabs now have press and broadcast apparatuses at their disposal.

Leading up to the Palestinian Arab parliament elections in January 2006, and following the Arab satellite TV revolution led by Al-Jazeera, the terrorist organization Hamas launched its own TV network named after the Al-Aqsa mosque. Early on, most of the programming was devoted to Koranic readings and images of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem.

Shortly thereafter, Hamas officials were quoted saying it would be emulating what Hezbollah did with its TV network Al-Manar and that it would also aim to spread the ideology of Hamas worldwide.

The director of the board of Al-Aqsa TV, Fathi Hamid, told Islam Online in January 2006, "It's only fitting that the Islamic movement, Hamas, should have a TV station where we can explain our hopes, our Islamic culture, and counter the widespread and incorrect stereotyping of struggle and resistance as terrorism. Ultimately, we hope Al-Aqsa TV will be a bridge between Hamas and the entire world, so we can have our own voice in the international media."

Programming developed to include calls by Hamas leaders for Palestinian Arab viewers to become suicide bombers, as well as segments in support of the killing of Israelis. One example includes an address at a rally led by Sheik Fayyadh Al-Akhdhar, a Hamas leader in Nablus, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on December 23.

The Hamas religious figure said, "The Hamas of the Revolution of the Mosques, of the War of the Knives, of the car bombs, of the great martyrdom-seekers, of the Al-Qassam missiles, of the Zionists' death tunnels, of the kidnapping of the soldiers and the settlers is the same Hamas of the government, of the legislative council, and of the ministries. … It will continue to march along the path of the martyrs and to follow in their footsteps until the liberation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the aggressive oppressors."

Over time, Al-Aqsa TV began to air memorials to "martyrs" such as Hamas founder Sheikh Yassin. More recently, segments inciting children to martyrdom have begun being broadcast. On March 8, the channel aired an interview with the two kindergarten-age children of suicide bomber Rim Al-Riyashi, who told the channel, "Mama went to paradise for killing Jews."

The father of suicide bomber Tareq Hamid was ecstatic as he praised his son's martyrdom operation to the channel on March 6. He told the interviewer that when his son was about to perform the terrorist attack, he called his friends and told them, "I swear by Allah that I saw the black-eyed virgins of paradise on the hood of my car."

Mr. Hamid added, "Some people claim that all these young mujahedeen who blow themselves up are desperate people. … These claims are wrong. These are lies and clear Zionist propaganda. All the mujahedeen I came to know … are the finest of Palestinian society. … The only thing they need is to reach paradise by means of defense and martyrdom for the sake of Allah…"

It is worth mentioning that the official Hamas newspapers also have been praising suicide bombers. One deplorable instance was in the November 27 issue of the Hamas biweekly Al-Risala, which published an article by Hamas spokesman ‘Abd Al-Latif Al-Qanu' drooling over Fatima Al-Najjar, the Palestinian Arab grandmother who blew herself up in November near Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip. In the article, Mr. Al-Qanu' also praises resistance as a means of liberating what he referred to as the Palestinian Arab territories "from the [Mediterranean] sea to the [Jordan] river," and he calls for suicide attacks in the heart of Israel.

Calling her attack "a turning point in the Palestinian people's jihad," the Hamas spokesman wrote, "This woman revolutionary acted like a man, put an explosive belt around her waist, and advanced toward a group of soldiers. … She became the first Palestinian grandmother … to have carried out martyrdom. In her heroic act, Umm Muhammad sent a clear message. … We will all be human timebombs that will explode in the heart of the criminal Zionist entity."

One must ask, "Why are no leading Arab political or religious leaders denouncing a culture that is cultivating a society made of suicide bombers — from the youngest children to the most elderly?"

Mr. Stalinsky is the executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute.