Norway questions funding of PA after Palestinian Media Watch findings

By JNS.org February 28, 2013, 3:57 pm 0 Edit

Flag of Norway. The Norwegian state-owned station, NRK, found that Norway gives the PA about 300 million kroner a year ($52,628,700) and directly correlated this to the PA’s incitement of hatred and glorification of terrorism. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Recent findings by Palestinian Media Watchon the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) glorification of terrorism against Israel were featured in a news report by a television station in Norway, one of the countries contributing funds to the PA, renewing a debate in the Scandinavian country on that funding.

The Norwegian state-owned station NRK found that Norway gives the PA about 300 million kroner ($52,628,700) a year, and directly correlated that funding to the PA’s incitement of hatred and glorification of terror.

“[Palestinian] children grow up learning that Jews are ‘Satan with a tail’… Adults hear that Jews are evil and not to be trusted. It is perhaps not surprising that the [Palestinian] hatred is growing,” the NRK report stated. “The messenger is a [PA] government that receives large amounts [of money] from Norway.”

Norwegian State Secretary Torgeir Larsen, who was interviewed in the report said, “There are examples in the book (PMW’s Deception) that clearly express hatred. There are also examples of anti-Semitism, which you find in Palestinian society. But these are examples. And it’s also important for me to emphasize that those (i.e., PMW) who have put together these examples—I do not doubt the content—are part of an ongoing political battle.”

An NRK journalist, however, independently interviewed several Palestinians. One Palestinian man interviewed in a café stated, “I believe that there is a Protocol for they [Jews] are planning to control the world.” Another Palestinian man said, “According to what we read and understand from history, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion exists. My information is based on history books and the media.”

PMW Senior Analyst Nan Jacques Zilberdik was also interviewed for the NRK report and said what PMW reports “is definitely the general [PA] message.”

“We don’t provide just a few examples that we have chosen to make it look extreme,” he said. “I think that Norwegian and other leaders will be surprised to hear what the Palestinian leaders, with whom they talk about peace, say in Arabic.”