Palestinians Use Crosswords To Negate Israel

(March 2001)

Crossword puzzles that appear in Palestinian media are yet another tool in the propaganda war against Israel. According to a study by Palestinian Media Watch, the puzzles offer clues that suggest Israel does not exist and that implicitly or explicitly attack Jews and Israel.

For example, the answer to the clue, "What is the well-known port city of Palestine?" would be expected to be Gaza. The correct response, however, is Haifa. Elsewhere Yad Vashem is identified as "commemorating the Holocaust and the lies," the Jewish trait as "treachery" and Jerusalem as "the Palestinian capital from the dawn of history until eternity."

In addition, with the exception of Tel Aviv and its immediate environs, every major city and geographical feature in Israel is identified as Palestinian. This includes numerous references to Lod, Safed, and Jerusalem as "occupied" by the Israelis, as well as including Ashkelon, Jaffa, Acre, Caesarea, Haifa, and geographical features such as Lake Kinneret, Mount Meron, and the Negev desert in the same category.

"It is important to note that these problematic 'messages' are not published in the Palestinian Authority newspapers in the aftermath of violence or during times of particular tension in the Israeli-Palestinian relationship," reads the report. "Rather, these have appeared over the past number of years as a routine part of Palestinian culture and amusement, reflecting normative Palestinian thinking and expectations."