PMW Bulletin

June 11, 2012

Puppet show at UN-supported Palestinian NGO:
Replace cigarettes with machine guns

NGO also lists as past or present funders:
The French consulate, the Italian Institutions Union,
the Swiss Development Agency and others
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=6930

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
p:+972 2 625 4140 e: pmw@palwatch.org

f: +972 2 624 2803 w: www.palwatch.org

A Palestinian NGO, the Burj Luq-Luq Social Center Society organization,
performed a puppet show for children in East Jerusalem to promote
non-smoking. The educational message delivered by the puppets instructed
children to replace cigarettes with machine guns:

Puppet: "I, and many other youth like me, think that cigarettes will help us
to grow, to turn into men. Jerusalem doesn't need men who hold cigarettes.
It needs men who hold machine guns, not cigarettes."

Click to view
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=845&fld_id=845&doc_id=6856

In addition to teaching children not to smoke, the puppet show glorified
death and violence and educated children to see Jews as "enemies" who kill
the Palestinian youth of Jerusalem:

Puppet: "I wanted to stand before the audience and sing to Jerusalem, which
is being kept from us. Jerusalem, whose youth are being killed by the Jews,
to sing and to say:
Jerusalem, we are coming, Jerusalem, the time of death has arrived.
Jerusalem, we will not surrender to the enemies or be humiliated."

A video of the puppet show appears until today on the organization's
homepage and "partners" page. According to the website, the Burj Luq-Luq
Social Center Society is or has been supported by various branches of the
UN, including UNICEF and UNESCO, in addition to international donors,
including:

"... the French consulate, the Swiss Development Agency, the Youth
Development Department, which belongs to the Association of Arab Studies the
'Orient House,' the Italian Institutions Union, the Faisal Husseini
Institute... UNFPA" and Arab countries, as well as the PA Ministry of Youth
and Sports.

UN and international donor money has been used before to support Palestinian
institutions or organizations that incite hatred and promote violence
against Jews and Israel. Among other examples, Palestinian Media Watch
recently documented that UNESCO supported a Palestinian magazine for youth
that glorified Hitler because he killed Jews because they are "a nation
which spreads destruction all over the world." Following PMW's exposure and
international protests, UNESCO stopped its funding of the magazine.

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that promoting hatred and glorifying
violence are intrinsic parts of the Palestinian Authority messages today and
that foreign aid money, including UN money, is often used by PA frameworks
to promote this hatred and violence - often without the knowledge of the
donors.

The following is the transcript of the puppet show performed at the Burj
Luq-Luq Social Center Society, and the texts from its website indicating it
is supported by UNICEF, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNIFEM and others:

Puppet 1: "I wanted to stand before the audience and sing to Jerusalem,
which is being kept from us. Jerusalem, whose youth are being killed by the
Jews. To sing and to say:
Jerusalem, we are coming, Jerusalem, the time of death has arrived.
Jerusalem, we will not surrender to the enemies or be humiliated."

Puppet 2: "What am I doing to myself [by smoking]?
I, and many other youth like me, think that through cigarettes we will be
adults and men. Jerusalem doesn't need youth who hold cigarettes.
It needs men who hold machine guns, not cigarettes."
[The puppet show was performed at the Burj Luq-Luq Social
Center Society in East Jerusalem and was posted on the center's website,
http://burjalluqluq.org/main/, accessed June 11, 2012]

Text on Burj Luq-Luq Social Center Society's website beside the video:
"Sources of funding: The organization is based first and foremost on
building scientific and professional ties with the funding institutions. The
organization has succeeded in earning the respect of local and international
funders, and maintains strategic ties with: ... the French consulate, the
Swiss Development Agency, the Youth Development Department, which belongs to
the Association of Arab Studies the "Orient House", the Italian Institutions
Union, the Faisal Husseini Institute,.. UNFPA..., the [Palestinian] Ministry
of Youth and Sports... UNICEF, UNESCO..."
[Burj Luq-Luq website, accessed June 11, 2012]

In addition to this text, the website also shows the logos of UNIFEM and
other foreign organizations beside the video.
http://burjalluqluq.org/main/partners

PMW has been informed that the Swiss Development Agency, in spite of its
name appearing in the listing beside the video, is no longer funding this
Palestinian NGO.