Nadat PMW met het bericht kwam dat in het Palestijnse tienerblad Zayafuna Hitler werd bedankt voor de holocaust, schreef het Simon Wiesenthal Centre een boze brief aan UNESCO, dat het blad tijdelijk had gesteund. UNESCO heeft zich inmiddels gedistancieerd van het magazine en gezegd dit niet langer te zullen financieren. Ook zegt men slechts enkele nummers te hebben gefinancierd. Uit de brief van UNESCO:
UNESCO supported the publication of three issues of the Zayzafouna Magazine six months after the February 2011 issue. The support was provided for these issues following agreement with the editorial board that they would focus on building greater appreciation amongst Palestinians for their heritage and culture. They were to open the way for positive dialogue aimed at overcoming the consequences of the Middle East conflict, and to fight against stereotypes that may be conducive to violence. It was UNESCO's intention to foster a positive view ofPalestinian heritage based on the values of tolerance and UNESCO's mandate of building peace in the minds of men and women. This vision guides all of UNESCO's activities, and we urge all partners to work in this direction.
UNESCO is shocked and dismayed by the content of the February issue, and has requested more detailed information and clarification from the editors of the magazine and to Palestinian Authority.
UNESCO strongly deplores and condemns the reproduction of such inflammatory statements in a magazine associated with UNESCO's name and mission and will not provide any further support to the publication in question.
The Organization, which is deeply committed to the development and promotion of education about the Holocaust, disassociates itself from any statement that is counter to its founding principles and goals of building tolerance in the full respect for human rights and human dignity.
Dat is mooi, maar roept wel de vraag op waarom men dit niet eerder had opgemerkt. Blijkbaar werd dit magazine, zonder het verder goed te bekijken, gesteund omdat het op het eerste gezicht een gematigde boodschap leek uit te dragen. En als je toch al meent dat de Palestijnen de slachtoffers zijn met het recht aan hun kant, dan kom je niet zo snel op het idee dat er dit soort akelige dingen in een magazine voor nota bene kinderen kunnen staan. Het betreffende verhaal was van een meisje van tien, en je kunt je afvragen hoe het komt dat zij dergelijke ideeën heeft, en waar die haat vandaan komt? Naast het stoppen van de steun zou dat een interessante vraag zijn voor de UNESCO, en een die een ieder met sympathie voor de Palestijnen niet uit de weg mag gaan.
PMW wijst erop dat ook de Palestijnse Autoriteit nauw betrokken is bij Zayafuna:
The magazine is published by the Zayzafuna Association for Development of Children's Culture, and sponsored by the PLO's Palestinian National Committee for Education, Culture and Sciences.
The magazine's advisory board is comprised of Palestinian Authority officials and educators, including PA Deputy Minister of Education Jihad Zakarneh, and former PA Minister for Women's Affairs Zuheira Kamal. [Zayzafuna, February 2011]
The Zayzafuna magazine is part of a larger education program funded by the Palestinian Authority which contributed 90,000 Shekel ($24,370) in 2010 and 10,000 Shekel ($2,700) a month in 2011.
Fijn dus dat UNESCO zich heeft gedistantieerd, maar laten we ook de PA, voor een groot deel door de EU gefinancierd, eens om uitleg vragen. Het is niet de eerste keer dat door de PA gesteunde media over de schreef gaan, en dit verhaal was in Zayafuna ook geen uitzondering:
In a letter to UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, Shimon Samuels, the Wiesenthal Center's director for international relations, wrote that the editors of Zayafuna "endorse Adolf Hitler as a role model for Palestinian children," noting that a quarter of the children's submission selected for publication by the magazine "express hatred for Jews and reflect messages transmitted through PA official media."
RP
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'UNESCO funds Palestinian magazine glorifying Hitler'
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=250462
By JORDANA HORN, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
12/22/2011 02:33
Simon Wiesenthal Center asks UN cultural agency to halt its sponsorship of the Palestinian childrens' magazine.
NEW YORK – The Simon Wiesenthal Center asked UNESCO's director-general Wednesday to suspend its sponsorship of a Palestinian children's magazine, saying the magazine applauded Hitler for murdering Jews.
According to Palestinian Media Watch, the educational children's magazine, Zayafuna, "includes terms glorifying jihad."
The PMW report references an essay in the magazine by a teenage Palestinian girl. The girl wrote about meeting Adolf Hitler in a dream, who tells her that he killed the Jews "so you would all know that they are a nation who spreads destruction all over the world." In the essay, Hitler tells the child to be patient regarding the suffering of the Palestinians at the hands of the Jews.
In a letter to UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, Shimon Samuels, the Wiesenthal Center's director for international relations, wrote that the editors of Zayafuna "endorse Adolf Hitler as a role model for Palestinian children," noting that a quarter of the children's submission selected for publication by the magazine "express hatred for Jews and reflect messages transmitted through PA official media."
"Apparently, the magazine's positive messages on coexistence and peace apply to all but Jews and Israelis," Samuels wrote. "Through a young girl, the Holocaust is presented as an act for the benefit of humanity."
The Palestinian Authority's deputy minister of educationand its former minister of education are both on the magazine's advisory board, Samuels noted.
UNESCO, Samuels said, has sponsored Zayafuna since August. The Hitler essay ran in the magazine's February 2011 issue.
While Samuels noted the October edition states that "opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily express UNESCO's views," Samuels wrote that this disclaimer was "hardly a fitting response to the discovery of the repugnant Holocaust celebration in the February issue."
Samuels recalled the Simon Wiesenthal Center's suggestion last month "when 'Palestine' was welcomed into UNESCO, that the new member be tested by being held to the declared values of UNESCO."
"Until Zayafuna publicly apologizes for its anti-Semitism, Palestine will have already failed that test," Samuels wrote, and urged UNESCO to demand that PA President Mahmoud Abbas rescind funding for the magazine.
PMW head Itamar Marcus said his organization welcomes the Wiesenthal Center's call to UNESCO to stop funding the magazine Zayafuna.
"UNESCO's continued funding of a hate magazine makes them a participant in the hatepromotion it disseminates," Marcus said. "It would be a violation of basic moral principles to fund a Palestinian magazine that glorifies violence and jihad, and presents Hitler as a role model for children.
"The only way, it seems, the Palestinian Authority will ever stop its repeated hatepromotion is if there are financial consequences to their hate promotion," Marcus said. "Let us hope that UNESCO takes the morally decent route and stops the funding, and not the politically expedient route of turning away in the face of Palestinian hatred."
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