Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin, July 24, 2008.
The Palestinian Authority has come up with yet another wild accusation about
Israel.
Two PA newspapers - one directly controlled by the office of PA President
Mahmoud Abbas - are accusing Israel of releasing rats with supernatural
qualities to chase away the Arab residents of Jerusalem. According to the PA
papers, the Israeli-Jerusalem rat is:
1. Immune to rat poison;
2. Aggressive and larger than usual;
3. Unafraid of cats and able to scare them away;
4. Highly fertile -- female rat gives birth to 140 babies a year, four times
the normal average;
5. Highly selective -- Jewish residents of Jerusalem apparently are not
affected by these rats.
Israel's goal, the libelous PA articles accuse, is "to turn the residents' life into a
living hell, forcing them to leave." Interestingly, the articles do not mention how
the rats are trained to differentiate between Jewish and Arab residents of
Jerusalem.
The following are the two stories:
"...one of the most amazing things that we've read during this month is that
[Israeli] settlers have been bringing chests filled with rats and releasing them in
the Old City's [Arab] neighborhoods; they breed and have become a major
curse... the [Arab] residents' efforts to counter this infestation have failed,
especially since cats run away from these rats because of their size and
ferocity...
All of the conventional efforts to kill them have not succeeded, because
they seem to be immune to poison and they breed in the sewers. It is known
that this female rat gives birth seven times a year, each time giving birth to 20
babies; which compels Jerusalem's [Arabs] today to face the dangers of
settlement and the infestation of rats..."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, controlled by the office of Mahmoud Abbas, July
18, 2008]
"Large numbers of [Israeli] settlers have been bringing huge cages full of rats
and releasing them onto the streets and alleys of the Old City [Jerusalem]...in
order to turn the [Arab] residents' life into a living hell, forcing then to leave..."
[Al-Ayyam, July 17, 2008]
Creating libels against Israel is a pivotal aspect of the Palestinian Authority's
incitement to hatred against Israel and Jews. PMW reported earlier this month
that the PA media were accusing Israel of conducting Nazi-like experiments on
Palestinian prisoners).
